It’s (Somewhat More) Official: Robert Pattinson Is Your New Batman

A few weeks ago, we learned that Robert Pattinson was up for the titular role in Matt Reeves' forthcoming The Batman. At the time, the news was not yet official, but that did nothing to stop The Discourse: everywhere you turned, someone had an opinion about the possibility of Pattinson playing the Caped Crusader. Only half of these opinions were correct. 

Today, we have a new opportunity to engage in the very same debates, as Deadline has just made it (slightly more) official: Robert Pattinson will be the next Batman. Following a week of rumors that had Pattinson going head-to-head with Nicholas Hoult for the role, Warner Bros. has given Pattinson the go-ahead. This is real, it's happening, and we are very, very excited about it. 

UPDATE: Alright, so, technically-speaking, Robert Pattinson is not yet officially signed to play Batman - he's just been approved for the role by WB, and there's some contract work that needs to be ironed out. Close to a done deal, in other words, but not quite a done deal. Please adjust your records accordingly.

UPDATE #2: Variety is now confirming Robert Patinson as Batman, officially, saying that a deal has been signed with Warner Bros. Please adjust your records accordingly, but be ready to update them again if another trade hops into the fray with yet another report on the matter. 

UPDATE #3: According to IGN's Jim Vejvoda, who just spoke with Warner Bros., negotiations are still underway. Please update your records and stand by for our fourth update, in which we will learn that this was all a misunderstanding and Robert Patrick is actually in negotiations to play Batman.

My guess is that Birth.Movies.Death. readers do not need to be told that Pattinson is a great pick for this role. You've seen Good Time and Cosmopolis and The Rover and/or High Life and you stopped thinking about R-Patz as "the Twilight guy" ages ago. But on the off-chance that you haven't seen those movies and remain unconvinced, do give them a watch. Pattinson's been doing some truly interesting shit with his career over the past decade or so, and has more than acquitted himself as an actor capable of great things when in the right hands (and we fully expect Matt Reeves to mold Pattinson into the troubled weirdo we've always pictured Batman to be). 

As previously reported, Matt Reeves' The Batman is expected to be a more detective-centric take on the Dark Knight, with The Penguin and possibly Catwoman in play as the main villains (rumors persist that this'll actually be a Rogue's Gallery affair, with several major Batman villains making an appearance, but Catwoman and Penguin are the names that keep coming to the forefront). So far, everything we've heard about this movie has made us very excited, and we can't wait to see what Reeves does with the mythology. It's 2019, and we are once again very excited for a Batman movie. What a time to be alive.

Stay tuned for more on The Batman as further updates become available. As of this writing, the plan is for the film to go in front of cameras early next year, with an expected arrival in theaters on June 25th, 2021.