By now, if you haven’t heard Robert Pattinson, eloquently nicknamed Robert Battinson or RBatz (though he’s already avoiding nicknames), is the new Batman, you’ve been living under a rock. However, what may surprise you is that Pattinson was just as shocked as many of us were that he got cast as Bruce Wayne.
The actor’s busy doing press for The Lighthouse right now, but he’s also willing to field questions about Matt Reeves’ upcoming Batman solo movie. In a new interview, he says he didn’t see it coming, noting,
It’s kind of insane. I was so far away from ever thinking it was a realistic prospect. I literally do not understand how I’ve got it, at all.
Well, the answer is he allegedly got it by beating out Nicholas Hoult and presumably other actors to land the big gig. I’m sure showing us what he could do in wild indies such as Cosmopolis, Good Time, and now The Lighthouse helped. However, no doubt landing the role was not as simple as being a known name who has been notable in a slew of movies.
These comments to Esquire are sort of a good reminder that actors aren’t always confident a job is coming their way, particularly when a big budget property is involved. To me, Robert Pattinson really does seem to be an interesting fit for the role. He's done franchise work before, so he knows how to handle that sort of job. Yet, he's also taken a lot of outside-the-box roles that could inform this Batman performance.
Plus, I think it helps that he said before he got the gig that he wasn’t just interested in only making indie movies and was open to doing more in a franchise after Twilight, explaining why he had been avoiding them in more recent years. So, stuff like this may have gone a long way to sort of open the door for Robert Pattinson to take on another notable character.
Still, the casting hasn’t been without controversy. Although people related to previous Batman movies, like Maggie Gyllenhaal, and former co-stars of Robert Pattinson, like Dakota Fanning, have voiced their approval of the casting, not all the members of the public have been so keen. In fact, there have been petitions and things asking Warner Bros. to “stop trashing” the DC universe. Even then, Robert Pattinson has been pretty diplomatic about the haters.
Hopefully, those people will give Robert Pattinson a chance to actually take on the mantle of Batman before a rash judgement is made. After all, the actor is a lot more than the sparkly vampire he played in Twilight.
Related: 7 Robert Pattinson Movies That Prove He’s More Than Twilight
In fact, you can catch him opposite Willem Dafoe in The Lighthouse, the new indie that was allegedly “miserable to make,” when it hits theaters on October 18, 2019.
