With the premiere of Batman’s next live-action movie The Batman drawing ever closer, it’s time to get … well, batty! Rumors about the plot and the major villains have been flying ever since the first trailer dropped, and none have been more tantalizing or mysterious than whispers of Gotham’s spooky Freemason-inspired secret society, The Court of Owls.
What is The Court of Owls?
A major adversary of Batman (and the Wayne family) is The Court of Owls. They are a secret organization that dates back to the founding of the Caped Crusader’s home, Gotham City, or perhaps even earlier. Their purpose is to control Gotham from the shadows and further their own ends by whatever means necessary. The myth of the secret society has been passed down through the generations of Gotham’s inhabitants via an old nursery rhyme:
Beware The Court of Owls, that watches all the time.
Ruling Gotham from a shadow perch, behind granite and lime.
They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed,
Speak not a whispered word of them or they’ll send The Talon for your head.
The Talon is a loyal group of lethal assassins that serve The Court of Owls. The court creates them by kidnapping child circus performers. They are sent out to eliminate anyone or anything the Court deems a threat to their existence or goals. Usually, one Talon is sent out at a time (though it is revealed later in the comics that there are many Talons kept in caskets ready to be awoken when needed), and they tend to possess almost supernatural strength and durability, and are able to be brought back from death repeatedly, making them essentially immortal.
The Court of Owls is one chapter of an international organization known as The Parliament of Owls. Gotham’s court has bases of operation in the underground structures of many of Gotham’s oldest buildings, and they have a secret room in every building established by Bruce Wayne’s great grandfather, Alan Wayne (who was himself eventually assassinated by the Owls as an old man). Bruce also suspects that they might be behind the deaths of his parents.
Have they appeared onscreen before?
The Court of Owls has not yet appeared in any live-action Batman film. However, they have made other notable appearances. In the animated film Batman vs. Robin, the Court was the major antagonist and was led by Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend, Samantha Vanaver. In the film, they attempt to manipulate Damian Wayne into becoming a Talon, but are eventually defeated.
They also appear as the overarching antagonist of the live-action TV series Gotham. They are the unseen force pulling strings (but alluded to) in the first season and officially make their debut in the second season, when it is revealed they are the financial benefactor of Hugo Strange’s horrifying Arkham Asylum experiments. They were the ones funding his research into immortality. In the third season, they appear again and, allied with Sensei, (who is working for Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Assassins), attempt to unleash a weaponized virus upon the city. In Gotham, it is also revealed that they were the masterminds behind the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne.
They also make two cameos in the video game Batman: Arkham Origins. One is in a book left open with their poem written out and clearly visible to the player. The other is in the form of two statues resembling Talons seen from atop a Gotham building.
Will they be in upcoming Batman releases?
It has been confirmed that The Court of Owls will be one of the main antagonists in the new video game Gotham Knights, which releases sometime in 2022.
Will they be in The Batman?
Their appearance in The Batman has not been confirmed, but rumors are buzzing after possible clues to their appearance were revealed in the first trailer. In the trailer, Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) finds a card left at a crime scene that is addressed to Batman. The greeting card has a large cartoon owl on the front, along with the message “From your secret friend” at the top and “Whoo?” at the bottom. The double whammy of owl imagery and emphasizing secret friends seems to heavily hint at the Court of Owls, or at the very least that The Riddler wants to point Batman in their direction.
They might end up as a red herring, but director Matt Reeves has also left some tantalizing clues. At DC Fandome 2020, he said, “The murders begin to describe the sort of history of Gotham in a way,” teasing a “whole new world of corruption that went much farther” than what Wayne previously knew about the city. He also mentioned that the corruption at the heart of his Batman story will “touch on Batman’s origins” and larger revelations about the Wayne family. The history of Gotham? Wayne’s family being linked with the historical corruption of the city? That seems to imply we might be learning about Alan Wayne and the Court! Or possibly even confirmation that they were behind his parents’ deaths.
Reeves is also currently working on two spinoff series for HBO Max that are also set in Gotham. One is a drama about the Gotham City Police Department, and the other is a series about the Penguin’s rise to power. The Court might also be hinted at in those series, and it’s also always possible that what Reeves sets up as clues or hints in the first of his Batman films might pay off if there is a sequel!
(images: DC Entertainment/Warner Bros.)
