In the Arrowverse Earth-89 timeline, which is an alternate continuation of Batman and Batman Returns and ignoring the events of Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, he serves as the main antagonist of the Batman '89 comic miniseries.
He was the district attorney of Gotham City who later gets half his face burned and later teams up with the Riddler.
In the first film and the Batman '89 comics, he was portrayed; by Billy Dee Williams; who also portrayed Lando Calrissian in Star Wars and General Boutwell in Undercover Brother. In Batman Forever, he was portrayed; by Tommy Lee Jones; who also portrayed Agent K in the Men in Black trilogy and Mike Roark in Volcano.
Harvey became district attorney of Gotham City and vowed to rid the city of its crime, with one of his ideas being taking down mob boss Carl Grissom, later Jack Napier/The Joker. He is seen several times in the film, and at the beginning attending a party at Wayne Manor.
He then allied with Batman in order to end crime in Gotham and make it a stable and peaceful city.
Becoming Two-Face[]
Harvey would later be scarred and become Two-Face. He would also team up with the Riddler in order to take down Batman and Robin. Their plans were scuppered and Dent fell to his death after a last effort to kill Batman for good.
Trivia[]
Harvey Dent was meant to appear in the 1992 film, Batman Returns, in; which he would be transformed; into Two-Face at the climax of the film. But his role in the film was replaced; by new character, Max Shreck portrayed; by Christopher Walken.
This is quite interesting as Max Shreck was portrayed as a corrupt official; who had attempted to kill Selina Kyle; which led to her becoming Catwoman. It is unknown; if they would have; made Harvey an antagonist in the film or; if he was to develop a separate personality, like big bad Harvey from the animated series.
But overtime, the stories about Harvey Dent's involvement in Batman Returns do vary. Some claim Billy Dee Williams was only going to solely appear in the 1989 film, Batman or that; the Riddler was going to be the sole main antagonist in Burton's unmade Batman 3 film.
Sam Hamm had this idea where Harvey Dent prosecutes The Joker in the opening scene before The Joker scars him by blowing himself up and the whole courtroom into smithereens, and even Daniel Waters wrote a scene in his first draft where he gets into an accident caused by the Red Triangle Circus Gang during the Gotham City mayhem and he flips a coin at the end, though Tim Burton rejected that idea.
In the 1995 film, Batman Forever, Harvey Dent in his Two-Face persona, was portrayed; by Tommy Lee Jones, replacing Dee Williams; who was bought out of his contract. Despite Billy being black and Tommy being white, their two versions of Harvey Dent is supposed to be the same; with the novelization; making this clear.
In the Batman Forever novelization, it is mentioned that; Dent and Batman first directly allied to take down the remaining members of the Red Triangle Circus Gang from Batman Returns.
