The Batman Director Matt Reeves Reveals When He First Saw Robert Pattinson in Costume

Long before Robert Pattinson got his own Batman suit, he wore the cowls of some of those actors who played Bruce Wayne before him. In fact, his audition took place while he was wearing Val Kilmer's suit from Batman Forever, making that the first time he saw Pattinson perform in the iconic cape and cowl.

"Warner Brothers are like, 'Look, we're not going to make anything for somebody for a screentest'. But you go there [into WB] and they've got all the suits, going back to Michael Keaton. They said, 'Look, we've done this on every single one. [Christian] Bale came in and he put on one of the original suits," Reeves said in a recent interview with Esquire UK.

Despite the suit not being made for Pattison's stature, the filmmaker went on the explain that a simple move as donning the suit can through an actor right into the middle of a role.

"I'm not going to say it fitted well," Reeves continued. "But it fitted the best. It was sort of old, and as he started acting, he started heating up the cowl and the cowl started to sag on his face. You could see him thinking, 'How am I going to act in this suit?' But putting on a Batman suit is also transformative. You start to feel the power of having that armor on."

For the first time in live-action, a version of Bruce Wayne will finally be seen wearing eye-liner under the mask, a necessity when it comes to Reeves' version on the character.

"You can't wear a cowl and not wear that. All of the Batmen wear that," the director continued. "I just loved the idea of taking off [the mask] and under that there's the sweating and the dripping and the whole theatricality of becoming this character."

The Batman will see Pattinson bringing about an entirely new take on the character, with a cast that also includes Colin Farrell as The Penguin, Paul Dano as The Riddler, Kravitz as Catwoman, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gil Colson, Jayme Lawson as Bella Real, Barry Keoghan as Officer Stanley Merkel, and Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth.

The Batman is currently set to be released on March 4th.