The Batman: Matt Reeves was “Devastated” When Robert Pattinson Joined Tenet, Thought He Wouldn’t Be Interested

The Batman was finally released this weekend, and the Matt Reeves film has been a big hit with critics and audiences alike. The film is “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes with an 85% critics score after 353 reviews and a 91% audience score after 5,000+ reviews. The movie stars Robert Pattinson in the titular role, and Reeves recently revealed in an interview with the ReelBlend Podcast that he was afraid Pattinson wouldn’t be interested because he had just been cast in Tenet, which was helmed by former Batman director, Christopher Nolan. 

Reeves explained his fear of diving into Batman after huge directors like Tim Burton and Nolan had tackled the character in the past. “I mean, [Nolan] had a high bar to try to clear, to try to come up to, to try to even come close to meeting,” Reeves explained. “I was aware that he was doing Tenet, and I thought that was really cool. In fact, I was a little … Let me tell you how it really affected me. I wrote the story, I wrote this script with Rob in mind. I wanted him to be my Batman. I had no idea if he was gonna be Batman, and when it was announced that he was cast by Chris in Tenet, I was devastated.”

Reeves continued, “I was convinced – because he’d been doing all of these art films and he’d been working with all these interesting filmmakers … If he’s gonna do a blockbuster, will it be Batman and would he do more than one? When he’s doing a blockbuster with one of the definitive Batman filmmakers, I thought, ‘Okay, so there goes that. He’s not gonna want to be Batman.’”

Luckily for Reeves, Pattinson is a huge Batman fan, and everything worked as planned. In addition to Pattinson in the titular role, The Batman stars Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, and Colin Farrell as Oswald ‘Oz’ Cobblepot.

“I really believe in what we’ve done and I’d be excited to tell more stories… We are already telling other stories in the streaming space, we’re doing stuff on HBO Max, we’re doing a Penguin show with Colin [Farrell], which is gonna be super cool,” Reeves recently shared with The Independent at The Batman‘s premiere. “And we’re working on some other stuff, too, but we have started talking about another movie.”

The Batman is now playing in theaters.