Anyone who tuned into the latest Netflix holiday rom-com, Jingle Bell Heist, will know that the debate of whether Batman Returns is a Christmas movie becomes a fun exchange between two security guards. Despite being released in the summer of 1992, Batman Returns is the rare superhero blockbuster set during the Christmas season and was released alongside Tim Burton’s Christmas phase of projects following Edward Scissorhands and one year before The Nightmare Before Christmas, which Burton produced. The movie sees Batman (Michael Keaton) facing off against threats from the Penguin (Danny DeVito), Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Max Shreck (Christopher Walken).
Batman Returns is an original story, not based on any specific comic run, though the Penguin’s run-for-mayor subplot is taken from 1966’s Adam West Batman series. However, many have noted that Batman Returns has many similarities to Charles Dickens’ iconic story A Christmas Carol. Published on December 19, 1843, A Christmas Carol is one of the most iconic stories in the world, and it is safe to say nearly everyone has heard a version of it, be it a classic tale, one with The Muppets, or one with Doctor Who.
The story of wealthy miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who, after a visit from three ghosts representing Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come (often called Future in other tellings), changes to be a better man and carry the spirit of Christmas in his heart, has endured as a classic for 182 years. Its influence can even be felt in a DC superhero movie like Batman Returns.
How ‘Batman Returns’ Relates to ‘A Christmas Carol’
On Dec. 4, 2025, Jason Baker, founder of Callosum Studios, posted his interpretation of Batman Returns as a modern-day reimagining of A Christmas Carol on his X account. The post said:
“Batman Returns is the greatest take on a Christmas Carol and the villains are a mirror opposites to Bruce Wayne’s life: Penguin (ghost of Xmas past) Orphaned as a child also, shows Bruce he could have blamed others and became a villain, instead of a hero. Catwoman (Ghost of Xmas present, dons a costume to hide their identity and reeks Havok on society , instead of helping it. Max Shrek (Ghost of Xmas future) allows the greed of being a successful businessman consume him. Show Bruce how easy it is for men to become corrupt.”
This is not the first time the Batman Returns/Christmas Carol connection has been made. In December 2016, Michael Walls-Kelly wrote “Batman Returns: A Twisted Christmas Carol.” It is a rather popular theory about the film, even though neither Tim Burton nor Batman Returns screenwriter Daniel Waters have commented. However, it is not difficult to see how the beloved Christmas tale’s iconography is reflected in the story.
While Batman Returns might not be a direct one-to-one translation of the beats of A Christmas Carol, given that the events don’t unfold over one night and three ghosts don’t visit Bruce Wayne, the reading still checks out as a symbolic reimagining. Batman Returns is the superhero sequel that popularized the concept of multiple villains in a follow-up film (the three Phantom Zone villains in Superman II can arguably be treated as a single threat). The decision to do three seems intentional, connecting them to the three ghosts of A Christmas Carol. It is easy to see how all three villains in the Christmas-set movie mirror Bruce Wayne in significant ways, reflecting his past, present, and potential future.
Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin and Bruce Wayne are both orphaned children from Gotham’s wealthy elite, but whereas Bruce’s parents were taken away from him at a young age, Oswald’s parents tossed him aside. Because the Penguin was born and likely abandoned around Christmas, he becomes a manifestation of the sins of Gotham (and Christmas) past come back to haunt them. The parallel to Batman and the Penguin is even highlighted when the Penguin mocks Batman, saying, “You’re jealous that I’m a genuine freak, and you have to wear a mask.”
As the Ghost of Christmas Present, Selina Kyle/Catwoman is another leather-bound masked vigilante, but one with more violent tendencies than Batman. She is an equal match for Batman in this specific moment… but also the key to what could be his future. Bruce Wayne extended his hand to Selina Kyle, inviting them to leave behind this violent life and move forward into a brighter future together. However, she can’t quite do that, and the movie ends with Batman and Catwoman separated yet looking out into the same cold Gotham night.
Finally, there is Max Shreck, an original character created for the movie and named after the actor who played Count Orlok in the original Nosferatu. Some reports suggest that Shreck was created as a replacement for Harvey Dent/Two-Face, who Billy Dee Williams initially played in Batman, and later Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever. This might suggest that Catwoman’s lethal kiss, which leaves Max Shreck burned and dead, was originally intended to be the birth of Two-Face.
However, this original character becomes both Batman Returns‘ reimagining of the Ghost of Christmas Future and Ebenezer Scrooge himself. He is a cold, greedy, wealthy industrialist whose unchecked greed mirrors what Bruce Wayne could become without his moral code. It does feel fitting for a Christmas-themed Batman film to have him metaphorically face down Christmas’s most famous greedy capitalist.
A Christmas Carol is so omnipresent in pop culture that it is not difficult to see how it can, intentionally or not, influence media set around Christmas like Batman Returns. The Simpsons even parodied how much writers have drawn from A Christmas Carol in “Tis the Fifteenth Season,” when Bart says, “TV writers have been milking that goat for years,” and then shows Christmas Carol-themed parodies of Star Trek and Family Matters. Batman Returns can be read as an A Christmas Carol reimagining, but it isn’t the only time Batman and the Christmas classic were paired.
‘Batman: Noël’ Is an Official ‘Christmas Carol’ Reimagining
19 years after Batman Returns, the caped crusader would receive a more faithful adaptation of A Christmas Carol that followed the structure of Charles Dickens’ original story, titled Batman: Noël, written and illustrated by Lee Bermejo. Published on Nov. 2, 2011,Batman: Noël sees Bruce Wayne in the Ebenezer Scrooge mold, a bitter, cynical hero who believes in binary black-and-white morality and law, failing to recognize many of Gotham’s criminals as part of an impartial system.
Bermejo uses various figures from the DC Universe to represent those from Dickens’ original novel, from Jason Todd/Robin’s death haunting Bruce Wayne, to the way Jacob Marley’s spirit hangs over Ebenezer Scrooge. The most striking choice involves which characters represent the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.
Catwoman is present in the story, but unlike in the Batman Returns interpretation, she represents the Ghost of Christmas Past, as she and Batman look back fondly on their past interactions. In many ways, it means the love that got away, similar to Scrooge and Belle in A Christmas Carol. Superman fills the role of the Ghost of Christmas Present, fittingly a great match as both characters are warm, jolly figures that radiate cheer. Finally, the role of the Ghost of Christmas Future is filled by the Joker, who attempts to bury Batman alive in a grave, forcing Bruce Wayne to reflect on his life choices and those he pushed away and how he can be a better man and, more importantly, a better Batman.
Batman: Noël received positive reviews when it was first published and has been seen as a modern classic. Meanwhile, Batman Returns‘ popularity has only grown in the 33 years since its release in theaters, becoming, for many, a not-so-obvious Christmas favorite. There is something about Batman that naturally lends itself to Christmas. Maybe it is Gotham’s architecture, or how great the image of Batman in snow looks (after all, one of his most famous villains is the ice-themed foe Mr. Freeze). Yet maybe it is the idea that someone who is depicted as cynical, rough, and closed off, like Batman, can, for one day of the year, open himself up to being happy with those closest to him — the love of his friends, his adopted family, and even the city he protects.
- Release Date
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June 19, 1992
- Runtime
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126 minutes
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
