The Suicide Squad's Joel Kinnaman Is Excited to See Robert Pattinson as Batman

While the current wave of live-action DC Comics films might not be trying to squeeze in the same connected universe, the actors involved with the various projects are still very aware each other's work. For example, Joel Kinnaman stars as Rick Flagg in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, a role he's reprising from the first film more than three years ago. His character likely won't ever interact with Robert Pattinson's version of Batman on-screen, but Kinnaman seems more than excited about what his peer is going to do with the Caped Crusader over the next few years.

This week, Kinnaman appeared on Variety's The Big Ticket podcast and was asked about the casting of Pattinson in The Batman. It's safe to say he's confident in what Pattinson will bring to the table.

"He just turned down almost everything and spent seven, eight years just doing obscure films with interesting directors. Films that very few people saw," he said. "But he was going to film school…And now he's taken on Batman. And I think that's so smart because now he's ready to do that. Now he can do his own thing with that, and I think if he'd tried to do something like that maybe five years ago, then it would've been something that someone else just put on him. Someone just threw a suit on him. I'm looking forward to what Rob Pattinson is going to do with his Batman."

Kinnaman clearly has high expectations for the actor preparing to take on the Dark Knight. He had some similar thoughts about the actor who just played Batman's iconic rival, Joaquin Phoenix.

"Joaquin [Phoenix] just crushed it. Wow. He is incredible. He's such an actor," Kinnaman said. "It's surprising to see that kind of a performance in something that has a DC wrapper on it, because that's a real art film. And I have a sister who's schizophrenic, and I've drawn on some of her behavioral things in things that I've done earlier, and, yeah, I was really struck by how accurate his [performance was]."

Kinnaman will once again take on the role of Rick Flagg in The Suicide Squad, which hits theaters on August 6, 2021. Pattinson will debut as Bruce Wayne less than two months before that, as The Batman will be released on June 25, 2021.