Scarecrow (Batman Unchained)

**Dr. Jonathan Crane**, also known as the **Scarecrow**, was intended to be the main antagonist of *Batman Unchained*, the cancelled fifth entry in the 1990s *Batman* franchise. He would have been a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum like his comic book counterpart that uses a fear toxin to create hallucinations.

He was intended to be portrayed by either Nicholas Cage or the late Coolio.

## Biography

While Scarecrow's origins and motives were never mentioned, in the original story idea Bruce Wayne/Batman (who would have been portrayed by George Clooney reprising his role from 1997's *Batman and Robin*) would be confronting the demons of his past as well as facing his fears. The Scarecrow would poison Batman with a fear toxin that would cause vivid hallucinations of the Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, and the Riddler (who were all intended to have their roles reprised by their previous actors Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, and Jim Carrey respectively) that would capture him and put him on trial in his own mind. Scarecrow would have learned Batman's identity, and teamed up with Harley Quinn to psychologically torture Batman until he wound up institutionalized in Arkham. However, with Robin (intended to be reprised by Chris O'Donnel from *Batman Forever* and *Batman and Robin*), Batman would have defeated Scarecrow and overcome his fears, and ended the film by standing in a cave with bats swirling around him.

However, due to the incredibly poor reception to *Batman and Robin*, George Clooney swearing off the role, and Joel Schumacher's reluctance, the project was cancelled. The idea was rewritten by Lee Shapiro and Stephen Wise into a new story called *DarKnight* that would have also featured the Scarecrow as the main antagonist and Man-Bat as his partner, but this was also scrapped. Despite the project's cancellation, aspects of the idea were used in the 2005 film *Batman Begins*, including the usage of Scarecrow.

## Trivia

* In February 2017, Coolio revealed that his cameo as a biker gang leader in *Batman & Robin* was intended to have been an appearance of Jonathan Crane, who was going to become the Scarecrow in the following film, that being *Batman Unchained*. However, according to Coolio, the Warner Bros. executives were the ones who wanted to give him the part, as Joel Schumacher didn't get along with him during filming and was courting Nicholas Cage to take the role for the fifth film.
	+ However, had the film been made with Coolio in the cast, it would have been a diversion from his comic book incarnation, as Jonathan Crane is Caucasian in the comic books whereas Coolio is African American.
* While *Batman Unchained* was ultimately unfilmed, some aspects of this planned incarnation of the Scarecrow were seemingly recycled in the 2015 video game *Batman: Arkham Knight*, as such game has the Scarecrow as the main antagonist, forming an alliance with Harley Quinn and his fear toxin makes the deceased Joker appear to Batman in hallucinations.
* This cancelled version of Scarecrow is similar to The Lizard that would be in *Spider-Man 4*. Both villains were slated to appear for a film that never came to fruition, however the reboots that took these scrapped sequels' place still had the villains. A version of Scarecrow appeared in *Batman Begins* so did The Lizard in *The Amazing Spider-Man*.