Robert Pattinson has been approached to play Gotham’s guardian angel in Matt Reeves’s The Batman, Variety reported on Thursday. Pattinson is apparently the top choice in a list that includes Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road, Beast in the X-Men reboots). The Batman is set for a June 25, 2021 release.
News of the Twilight star being attached to The Batman elicited spirited reactions on social media. While many noted that Pattinson, having performed in multiple arthouse successes, is a great fit, others could not get past Pattinson’s legacy of having played the heartthrob vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight franchise.
Pattinson’s last appearance was in Claire Denis’s science fiction film, High Life (2018). His upcoming films include Robert Eggers’s The Lighthouse, which will be premiered in the Cannes Film Festival this year, David Michod’s The King, and Christopher Nolan’s upcoming project.
Reeves has previously made Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). Ben Affleck, who first appeared as Batman in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), was set to direct, co-write, and star in the solo Batman project. After playing Batman in Justice League (2017), Affleck stepped down from the director’s chair and Reeves was roped in.
Reeves’s The Batman is part of DC Comics and Warner Bros’s initiative to make standalone comic book films, which will be separated from the interconnected universe of films based on DC Comics’ properties, similar to Todd Phillips’s October release Joker.
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