Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers star Chris Pratt was surprised to learn Ireland bookmakers have him as 16 to 1 odds to play the next Batman.
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“Really? Wow,” a stunned Pratt told MTV News.
“I didn’t know that. You can bet on this stuff? Wow. We should bet enough to budget the movie. And then just do a boondoggle Batman that just gets zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Will you be Joker?”
“I think we found the one way to make this flop,” joked MTV host Josh Horowitz.
“I would love to, that’d be awesome,” Pratt said, laughing.
When told Call Me by Your Name star Armie Hammer and Spider-Man: Far From Home star Jake Gyllenhaal have better odds, Pratt said, “I could see that.”
“I don’t know what you do now, because there’s been so many iterations of it. Would you go even lower,” Pratt said, lowering his voice to an octave matching LEGO Batman voice actor Will Arnett, “And do my voice even more gravelly.”
Studio Warner Bros. is now reportedly on the hunt for a “familiar face” to play the caped crusader in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, centered around a younger Bruce Wayne. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League star Ben Affleck vacated the role last month.
Pratt, 39, already famously anchors his own Marvel Studios franchise as Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, and headlines Universal’s blockbuster Jurassic World franchise.
Notorious Batman fanboy and The Flash director Kevin Smith previously nominated Pratt for the role of Superman when considering Henry Cavill’s unsure future with the DC Extended Universe.
“You gotta be warm as sh-t, right?” Smith said in September. “Like here — Chris Pratt seems like an ideal Superman, kinda. In terms of personality, seems like a big cuddly kid, likes everybody, and stuff like that.”
It was rumored in October 28-year-old Jack O’Connell (Unbroken, Money Monster) was being looked at for the new Batman.
Reeves has only characterized the tentatively titled The Batman as “a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale,” highlighting Batman’s moniker of the world’s greatest detective.
Pratt next returns as Star-Lord in Avengers: Endgame, out April 26. The Batman is dated June 25, 2021.
