Robert-Pattinson

Robert Pattinson – Batman or Bust?

Written by Maria Hart

There was as much love as there was hate for Ben Affleck’s portrayal of the iconic character of Batman in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and the follow-up Justice League. But whether you loved Affleck as Batman or hated it, we now know that he will not be returning to the role.

Ben Affleck as Batman. Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

According to DC comics news, in 2021 DC is planning a solo Batman film simply (and aptly) titled: The Batman. And now, we’ve learned the none other than Robert Pattinson is finalized to take up the role of the Caped Crusader in the much-anticipated 2021 release.

Matt Reeves (director of Cloverfield (2008), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)) is going to be at the helm of the project with Robert Pattinson going to play the leading man. In case you’ve been under a rock, we are talking about Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame.

As might have been expected, this announcement of the Twilight star taking up the cape and cowl of a beloved character like Batman has sparked a lot of chatter online. Is he the right guy for this job? Will people be able to get over his vampire roots in order to play a blockbuster character like Batman?

These and many other questions are flying around the internet. But we thought it’d be good to take a step back and look at the history of Batman in films. Perhaps that will give us some perspective on how to fit Robert Pattinson in for this role.

Batman Films Throughout the Last Century.

Lewis G. Wilson holds the distinction of being the first big-screen Batman all the way back in 1943. That’s right, Batman has been in movies since the middle of World War II! Wilson was only 23 at the time. There was a show in 1949 called Batman & Robin in which Robert Lowery played Batman. With not much background in film, Lowery was initially a bit of a surprise to get the role.

If you ever had the pleasure of coming across Adam West’s version of Batman starting in 1966, then you know that some versions of Batman are not quite as moody and serious as more recent versions. West went on to voice Batman through some animated versions of the superhero starting with 1977’s The New Adventures of Batman. He was literally the voice of Batman for almost 20 years.

Michael Keaton as Batman. Batman Returns (1992)

Then we all remember Michael Keaton’s take on the superhero in 1989 with Batman and then Batman Returns in 1992. It was at this point that Hollywood started to realize what they had in the Batman character. Which explains why 2005-2010 saw a whole bunch of Batman movies starting with Val Kilmer then moving on to George Clooney and then moving on to Christian Bale’s iconic performance in Christopher Nolan’s legendary Batman trilogy.

All of that leads us up to 2016 when Ben Affleck became the Batman. And while some hated it and some loved it, it was just not destined to last for very long. Affleck leaving the role left people asking – who will take up the cape now? And now we know – Robert Pattinson is the guy.

The newest version of Batman is coming to theaters in the summer of 2021. This solo film is going to be an interesting development in the character.

Can Robert Pattinson Pull It Off?

Prior to the internet, people’s opinions of who was acting as Batman were largely unknown. However, in this digital age, an announcement as big as who the next Batman will be is definitely going to be met with a lot of positive and negative comments regardless of who it is.

Robert Pattinson is no exception!

Fan poster of Robert Pattinson as Batman

Some people are arguing that Robert Pattinson is the perfect choice for Batman. Man has cited the fact that he’s already proved that he can pull off the moody, mysterious type of character. Being a teenage vampire for 4 different movies certainly will give you some practice in being moody and mysterious. Like Edward Cullen in Twilight, Pattinson had a lot of time and room to grow and develop as an actor. Add to that the fact that he already has a very large and very loyal fan base, commercially, casting him as the next Batman could bring in a whole new segment of viewers to the new movie.

Another reason put forth is that Pattinson has the right kind of look to play Batman. The same could not be said for every actor who has played Batman.

But while to some people, Pattinson’s work on Twilight is seen as a huge plug, others see it as a huge negative. There’s a large slice of the population that literally hate Twilight and argue that the main actors (Pattinson included) did a bad job of acting. Whether this is true or not, many people are up in arms, calling for Pattinson to reject the deal.

Something to remember is that Twilight was quite a while ago. Pattinson has continued to act and improve his abilities. In fact, he’s made a fairly successful career so far. Pattinson’s work in Good Time and High Life were pretty well received and showed that the actor had more range than he showed in Twilight.

It’s way too early to tell whether or not Robert Pattinson is the right guy for the job. There are countless examples of casting decisions that were decried as horrible at first that turned out to be genius later on. Let’s hope Robert Pattinson as Batman will be one of those choices.

Poster courtesy: www.imdb.com, sunny99.iheart.com

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