The Batman Director Matt Reeves Compares The Wayne’s to The Kennedy Family

The Batman featured a much different Bruce Wayne than we’re used to. Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne was based off of deceased rock star Kurt Kobain in a way that he’s a recluse.  But it seems that director Matt Reeves had a different idea in mind for the Wayne family. The director revealed in a recent interview with KCRW that his version of the Wayne’s was based off of the Kennedy family.

“I was interested in the idea of him being at a stage where he couldn’t bear the weight of the history of being part of the Waynes. I thought he could be kind of like a member of the Kennedy family like American royalty, or what a British royal would be in the wake of a tragedy and how there was a lens being put on you because of a family tragedy that you could never escape. And so his response would be to want to withdraw from all of that and not understand that in the mission of what he was trying to do to try and make sense of his life, he might be able to use that as a kind of mask or or guise, that might be useful. He can’t figure any of that out yet.”

Reeves recently revealed a deleted scene featuring Barry Keoghan as the Joker, and it set the Internet ablaze. This interpretation of the Clown Prince of Crime is utterly grotesque looking and something way different than what we’ve previously seen. The director teased the future of Joker in The Batman franchise while appearing on Den of Geek’s DC Standome.

“What you’re seeing is a pre-Joker Joker, actually. We go back to the Conrad Veidt, The Man Who Laughs inspiration, which is a Bob Kane-Bill Finger reference. Obviously, that guy has a congenital disease. He’s sort of like Phantom of the Opera, he can’t not smile,” Reeves explained. “Instead of being like the story of the Elephant Man, where his grotesque outward appearance sort of belied the beautiful inside, this would form his nihilistic worldview and he would have an insidious understanding of human nature. That’s kind of where this psychology comes from in who this guy would be.” 

Directed by Matt Reeves, The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/the Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as GCPD’s James Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson, Jayme Lawson as mayoral candidate Bella Reál, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Colin Farrell as Oswald “Penguin” Cobblepot. The film is exclusively in theaters now.

What did you think of Robert Pattinson’s Batman? Do you want the actor to get a sequel? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @NateBrail up on Twitter!