The Le Journal du Dimanche interview that appeared to confirm Sebastian Stan is playing Harvey Dent in The Batman: Part II has been edited — and the key words are now gone.
UPDATE — Aug. 19: We now know more about why the Harvey Dent language disappeared. TheWrap reports that two insiders said Sebastian Stan was misquoted in the original Le Journal du Dimanche interview. The French outlet subsequently corrected the article, removing the words identifying Stan as Harvey Dent.
That moves this beyond a mysterious post-publication edit: Stan has not publicly confirmed that he is playing Harvey Dent in The Batman: Part II.
His role remains unconfirmed.
Well.
The Harvey Dent mystery is apparently not dead after all.
Earlier Tuesday, French outlet Le Journal du Dimanche published an interview with Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve ahead of Fjord. While discussing the secrecy surrounding Avengers: Doomsday and The Batman: Part II, the interview originally attributed a remarkably direct statement to Stan:
“I can’t say anything about The Batman: Part II either, by Matt Reeves, where I play Harvey Dent.”
That sentence understandably spread quickly.
The Nerd Wire reported the apparent confirmation Tuesday morning, as did multiple entertainment and fandom outlets across social media.
There was just one problem.
The original interview has now been edited.
Sebastian Stan’s Harvey Dent ‘Confirmation’ Has Been Removed From the Original Interview
As of Tuesday night in the United States, the live version of the Le Journal du Dimanche interview no longer includes the words identifying Stan as Harvey Dent.
The article now lists an update time of August 19 at 12:12 a.m. in France.
Stan’s answer currently reads, in translation:
“I can’t say anything about The Batman: Part II by Matt Reeves either.”
And then the interview moves on.
No Harvey Dent.
No character confirmation.
The outlet does not currently include a visible editor’s note explaining why that portion of the quote was removed.
That distinction matters.
We can confirm that the published interview changed. We cannot confirm whether the original wording came from a transcription error, a translation issue, an editorial addition, a clarification requested after publication or something else entirely.
And without that information, we’re not going to invent an explanation.
So Is Sebastian Stan Still Playing Harvey Dent?
Maybe.
There has been substantial reporting connecting Stan to Harvey Dent for months, and the character remains one of the leading possibilities for his role in Matt Reeves’ sequel.
But the situation was already complicated.
Other reporting has suggested Stan could instead be playing serial killer Victor Zsasz, with Brian Tyree Henry potentially taking the Harvey Dent role. Neither Reeves nor Warner Bros. has publicly settled the question.
Tuesday morning appeared to change that.
If Stan himself had explicitly said “where I play Harvey Dent,” that would have been the clearest confirmation yet.
Now, the source that published those words has removed them.
So we’re putting the mystery back where it belongs:
unconfirmed.
What We Know — and What We Don’t
We know Sebastian Stan is in The Batman: Part II.
We know the original version of the JDD interview attributed the Harvey Dent line to him.
We know that wording spread widely online Tuesday.
And we know the live article has now been edited to remove it.
What we do not know is why.
That’s important because the edit itself doesn’t prove Stan isn’t Harvey Dent any more than the original line can now be treated as definitive proof that he is.
For the moment, Gotham’s district attorney remains an open question.
Which means after approximately twelve hours of thinking Sebastian Stan had finally killed one of the biggest casting mysteries surrounding The Batman: Part II:
Never mind. Put the murder board back up.
We’ll update this story if Le Journal du Dimanche, Warner Bros., Matt Reeves or Stan provides further clarification.
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