2022 Will Feature Four Different Versions of Batman on the Big Screen
Fans of comic book movies and TV shows may recall in years past when studios were a little skittish about using multiple versions of their characters. Arrow viewers know good and well that the show had to dance around certain characters while they were being used on the big screen for fear of confusing audiences, but that fear has seemingly been squashed entirely at Warner Bros. as 2022 will include four different versions of Batman on the big screen across its feature films this year. Last year's Spider-Man: No Way Home brought three versions of Spider-Man together in live-action in one film, and WB will match that number across just two movies later this year.
Starting things off with the year of Batman is Robert Pattinson's version of the character in...well, The Batman. Speaking in a new interview with Total Film, Pattinson said he was "aiming for quite different stuff" with his version of the character, a character that even his agents didn't think he wanted to play. He added, "Even my agents were like, 'Oh, interesting. I thought you only wanted to play total freaks?' And I was like, 'He is a freak!'" The Batman director Matt Reeves previously compared his version of the character to the late Nirvan front man Kurt Cobain, telling Empire: "Rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we've seen before, there's another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse. So I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant's Last Days, and the idea of this fictionalised version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor."
Following Pattinson's Batman is an unnamed Batman actor with the animated DC League of Super-Pets. It seems unlikely that this Batman will be a major part of the film, but Ace the Bat-Hound will be one of its stars so Batman will certainly make an appearance. Diego Luna, Keanu Reeves, Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz, all confirmed as part of the cast but their roles not yet revealed. Could one of them be the Dark Knight? Which one will join their fellow Batmen in the annals of DC history?
The next two versions of Batman that will appear on the big screen are actually in the same movie as it has already been confirmed that both Ben Affleck's Batman and Michael Keaton's Batman will appear in the upcoming The Flash movie. Considering the level of secrecy that Marvel and Star Wars have had in the past year with keeping their surprises secret we're not entirely ruling out the possibility that there may be another Batman in the movie, but even if it's just these two it makes for the most versions of Batman that have been on the big screen in any year (previously 2017 had two versions with Will Arnett's LEGO Batman and Affleck's version both appearing in feature films).
We also would be remiss if we didn't point out that Michael Keaton's Batman is set to reprise his role in the Batgirl movie as well, but since that project is an HBO Max exclusive it won't be on the big screen.
It's hard to imagine this many different versions of Batman appearing in movies in another year, and hopefully no delays make this article inaccurate.
Which version of Batman are you most looking forward to seeing in theaters? Sound off in the comments below and tell su!