It wasn’t that long ago that we were watching a Batman with decades of crimefighting experience fighting the forces of evil alongside other superheroes. However, with Ben Affleck having retired as the Caped Crusader, Robert Pattinson is coming in to play a Bruce Wayne who’s still relatively new to the crimefighting game in The Batman.
This is one of the main ways that The Batman director and co-writer Matt Reeves wanted his version of the eponymous protagonist to stand out from past iterations of the character, as Robert Pattinson’s Batman doesn’t have it all together just yet. In Reeves’ words:
I just felt like well, what I’d love to do is to get a version of this Batman character where he’s not yet fully formed. Where there’s something to do in this context with who that guy would be in this world today, and to ground him in all of these broken ways. Because at the end of the day, this guy is doing all of this to deal with trauma in his past.
Matt Reeves provided some insight on how he’s approaching the new cinematic Batman while speaking with Nerdist, where he also praised Batman Returns and The Dark Knight, two of the more critically successful Batman movies. Reeves noted how his love for these past versions of Gotham City’s shadowy protector guided him in coming up with his own vision for the character for The Batman.
Robert Pattinson will be the seventh actor to play Batman in a live action feature-length film, so needless to say that it’s important that he comes across as unique compared to his predecessors. Costume-wise, from what little has been shown so far, it certainly seems like Pattinson’s Batman will be visually distinctive. But as far as characterization goes, aside from this Bruce Wayne’s detective skills being highlighted more than previous film Batmans (Batmen?), we’re still largely in the dark about what to expect from him, and it may be a while before any concrete details are revealed.
Plot information concerning The Batman is also being kept under wraps, although the movie is reportedly set during Bruce Wayne’s second year as Batman and is possibly inspired by The Long Halloween story arc. That 13-issue limited series saw Batman tracking down a serial killer called Holiday over the course of the year, and running into many of his well-known adversaries along the way.
One aspect of The Batman that has been well publicized is its cast. Joining Robert Pattinson is Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as Riddler, Colin Farrell as Penguin, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gil Colson and Jayme Lawson as Bella Reál, along with Gil Perez-Abraham, Charlie Carver and Max Carver in undisclosed roles.
The Batman is currently scheduled for June 25, 2021, although given that filming has been paused indefinitely since mid-March, it’s possible it’ll have to swoop into theaters later. Keep checking with CinemaBlend for updates on that front, and find out what other DC movies are in the works with our comprehensive guide.
