It’s official. After weeks of speculation that Robert Pattinson would be stepping into the role of Batman, Warner Brothers has confirmed it, Deadline reports. The 33-year-old will play a young Bruce Wayne in director Matt Reeves’s trilogy about the superhero’s early years, due to hit cinemas in 2021. Nicholas Hoult was also a frontrunner for the role. No official start date for filming has yet been announced.
Pattison will be the ninth actor to play the iconic DC Comics creation. Ben Affleck most recently donned the cape for director Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman and Justice League. Among the other Hollywood stars to take on the part of the Dark Knight? Christian Bale, George Clooney, and Val Kilmer.
This is just the latest in a string of coups for the Twilight star. Earlier this year, he starred in Claire Denis’s critically acclaimed sci-fi thriller High Life as a prisoner in outer space – while his performance in Robert Eggers’s most recent horror film, The Lighthouse, was one of the highlights of Cannes this year. Pattison is also about to begin filming Christopher Nolan’s mysterious eleventh film, described only as a cinematic “event” to be released in IMAX theatres in 2020.
