Before Robert Pattinson was officially announced as the next actor to don the famous cowl, there was already a petition with thousands of signatures urging DC to reconsider what seemed at the time to be an inevitable casting decision.
Pattinson wasn’t oblivious to the initial backlash, telling the Los Angeles Times that he was admittedly “shocked” by how relatively tame the response was, in comparison to other projects. “I was actually mocked less than I usually am,” he said, laughing. “I was quite shocked. ‘Only 70% negative? A-plus!’”
The Batman director Matt Reeves revealed to MovieMaker in January that he and co-writer Peter Craig started penning the script with Pattinson in mind after coming across his work while “watching movies of actors in the age range.”
“In writing, from the beginning, I was imagining the character in my head. And I started watching movies of actors in the age range,” Reeves recalled. “And he just really kind of captivated me, and I started writing for him at a certain point. I had no idea if he ever would want to be in the movie.” Pattinson added, “I had no idea that Matt had seen Good Time and thought, ‘I want to do a really dirty, dirty, slimy Batman.”
In a 2019 interview with The Guardian, The Lighthouse actor discussed the criticism towards his casting, and reassured fans of the Caped Crusader that he doesn’t need to listen to the outside noise because no one is harder on him than himself. “Whenever you say anything, people are like, ‘Argh! You idiot!’ Like, dude, I haven’t even started yet! But there is no harsher critic of myself than myself, so I don’t need to worry about anyone else,” he said.
The Batman, which also stars Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Paul Dano, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell, hits theaters on March 4.
