It’s the evening of May 16, maybe around 5:30 or so.. or, whenever you happened to be on the internet after that, that you probably heard the news: Twilight star Robert Pattinson was cast as Batman in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” film, to be released in 2021. Variety is as good a source as any, I suppose, despite the fact that when the initial news dropped, some trades were reporting that he was merely a top contender for the role along with X-Men alumni Nicholas Hoult. It seems that all the talk for for the 24 hours since has all been about Pattinson.
I told a friend of mine,and he seemed a bit put out by the news. We kind of both laughed that we got the impression that, physically speaking, he didn’t seem like Batman (perhaps Ruby Rose’s Batwoman, from the new CW show, could take this guy out?) but in truth the guy isn’t as meek as he might seem, and given the kind of training regimen actors can get, he can bulk up pretty well for this role. That doesn’t quite shake the the kind of fall out Warner Brothers will get over this casting: the guy from Twilight, really. To his credit, however, Pattinson is regarded by many (at least “the many” who have seen the smaller films he’s been in) to have impressive acting chops. Look at some pictures, I can at least see him as a Christian Bale-esque Bruce Wayne, I guess.
Then there is always the Nolan factor. Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan knows talent when he sees it, and just cast Pattinson in his next (as yet unnamed) film. This is Nolan the same guy that felt that Heath Ledger would be right for his take of the Joker. When Ledger’s casting was announced, there were a lot of fans fuming about that too. That’s how it is with the casting of comic book movie characters: Hugh Jackman, the song and dance guy, as the cigar chomping Wolverine? It happened! It’s hard to picture anyone else for that role.
