Robert Pattinson’s Batman Teaming Up With An Established DC Hero?
Robert Pattinson donning the Caped Crusader’s cowl in 2019 seemed to herald the death of the Snyderverse, with the 34-year-old ostensibly poised to replace Ben Affleck as the resident Batman of the DC Extended Universe.
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Robert Pattinson donning the Caped Crusader’s cowl in 2019 seemed to herald the death of the Snyderverse, with the 34-year-old ostensibly poised to replace Ben Affleck as the resident Batman of the DC Extended Universe. Pro-Warner Bros. DC fans rejoiced at the prospects of Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne finding allies in Henry Cavill’s Clark Kent and Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince, but all hope of that happening died along with Zack Snyder, apparently, with Pattinson’s Bats meant to exist in his own separate universe. Cavill’s Superman and Gadot’s Wonder Woman are Snyder’s quasi-creations and theoretically shouldn’t coexist with a Batman who isn’t Ben Affleck. The petitions eventually lost steam and DC fans moved on. But a source that previously leaked the Snyder cut’s connection with HBO Max just dropped a total game-changer: the Robert Pattinson in Matt Reeves’s noir retelling of the masked vigilante will potentially be working with Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman in a future installment. The details aren’t clear, but according to this mystery insider, the interest for a team-up is certainly alive over at Warner Bros..
Following the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, WarnerMedia’s Ann Sarnoff made public the studio’s intention to move the franchise away from the pocket universe Snyder developed, with Jason Momoa and Gal Gadot expected to reprise their characters after Ezra Miller’s reboot of the DC movie-verse that birthed Ben Affleck’s Bruce and Henry Cavill’s Clark. Affleck is gone after Andy Muschietti’s The Flash and Cavill might make his final appearance in Black Adam, starring Dwayne Johnson as the titular supervillain. Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and Robert Pattinson’s Batman are alternate-universe counterparts. Like his animated series version, Miller’s Barry Allen will continue as normal, but Warner Bros. has remained coy on whether or not Momoa and Gadot could still function in a rebooted timeline that doesn’t have either Affleck or Cavill, both of whom they closely interacted with.
Much like their CW equivalents, recasting Batman and Superman is easy to explain once Flashpoint integrates the multiverse into the franchise, but for Aquaman and Wonder Woman to stay the same wouldn’t make much sense. Zachary Levi’s Shazam hasn’t technically befriended Snyder’s version of the Justice League — Billy Batson’s “Henry Cavill” didn’t have a face, so as far as we’re concerned, he could be anyone at this stage — so the rebooted DCEU could still move forward with him, but Snyder’s band of heroic misfits began and died along with his vision.
Gadot, in particular, debuted as early as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and belongs to an entirely different universe, with a less Disneyfied a.k.a. age-appropriate tone. Robert Pattinson’s Batman is decidedly brutal, but if Warner Bros. intends to pair him with the likes of Levi’s Shazam and Gadot’s Diana, as mature as the premise may be, the studio may still insist on a PG-13 rating. Same as the Dark Knight Trilogy. But if Pattinson’s Bats were to cross paths with Gadot’s Diana, it would probably be years after The Batman, since the third and final installment in Wonder Woman’s trilogy is reportedly set in the present-day.
Robert Pattinson’s The Batman is presently described as self-contained — not part of any existing movie universe — but could easily change depending on how well (or how badly) the film performs critically and at the box office. It stars Pattinson as Batman, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Colin Farrell as the Penguin, and Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, and chronicles the second year of Bruce Wayne’s tenure as the Dark Knight. The screenplay was written by Matt Reeves and Bad Boys For Life’s Peter Craig, with Reeves directing.
The Batman was originally Ben Affleck’s passion project. The multi-awarded 48-year-old was the first person tapped to direct, write, and star in Bruce Wayne’s first solo film since The Dark Knight Rises, with former DC Entertainment President Geoff Johns co-writing. Justice League’s Chris Terrio joined the writing team in 2017. Joe Manganiello was expected to reprise the role of Deathstroke as the main villain of Affleck’s The Batman, but that whole project was scrapped after Reeves replaced Ben Affleck as director. Matt Reeves reportedly chose between Pattinson and X-Men actor Nicholas Hoult for the part of Bruce Wayne, with Robert Pattinson naturally snagging the highly coveted role. The Batman hits theaters on March 4, 2022.
