Remember When Robert Pattinson and Robert Downey Jr. Almost Made a Netflix Movie Together?

Mickey 17 will mark the first movie Robert Pattinson has headlined in three years since The Batman dominated the box office. Similarly choosy with his roles in recent years is Robert Downey Jr., with this actor only partaking in specific movies like Oppenheimer since his work in Avengers: Endgame. Refusing to take on just any role has served both of these actors well, with their respective fanbases treating each new appearance of Pattinson and Downey Jr. as an event unto itself. One can only imagine the excitement that would burst out if this pair of picky actors had actually starred in a movie together.

Believe it or not, though, these two actors very nearly anchored a modern movie together, one that would’ve been helmed by award season darling Adam McKay and been released by Netflix. As of this writing, it doesn’t look like the project is going anywhere, but for one brief shining moment, two very distinctive acting talents nearly united to do a satirical dark comedy.

What Was This Adam McKay Movie?

This proposed movie would’ve been called Average Height, Average Build and would’ve had Pattinson playing a serial killer who gets into politics to help ensure that the legal system doesn’t prevent him from carrying out further grisly murders. In other words, it would’ve been like if Jeffrey Dahmer was the star of Dave or Man of the Year. Amy Adams, Forest Whitaker, and Danielle Deadwyler were among the names set for the supporting cast, while Robert Downey Jr. would’ve been playing a detective who wants to bring Pattinson’s character to justice, no matter how famous of a politician he becomes.

These roles would’ve been full circle gigs for both Pattinson and Downey Jr. For the former actor, it meant that Pattinson would be playing a killer again after his stint as Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies. Meanwhile, Robert Downey Jr. garnered immense acclaim in 2007 for playing another man bent on taking down a serial killer in Zodiac. As for McKay, this project united him once more with Don’t Look Up’s financier Netflix. The streamer was clearly hoping Average Height, Average Build could be the next star-studded McKay movie to generate lots of viewership for the streamer, not to mention a potential Best Picture Oscar nomination.

However, a little over seven months after Netflix plunked down a lot of change to purchase Average Height, Average Build, the streamer reversed course and canned the movie. Allegedly, this occurred once McKay opted to focus on a movie centered on the climate crisis. Netflix didn’t have any interest in the feature unless the Don’t Look Up auteur was behind it, despite the star-studded cast assembled. With that, Average Height, Average Build was scrapped.

[RELATED: James Gunn Confirms Robert Pattinson Will Not Be the DCU’s Batman]

Is There Any Hope for an Average Height, Average Build Revival?

It’s been a little over a year since this planned Robert Pattinson/Robert Downey Jr. movie got scuttled. Unfortunately, for fans of the two actors, it doesn’t look like there’s any chance this project gets off the ground or is revived any time soon. This is despite McKay still not having a concrete new directorial effort to focus on. However, Pattinson’s schedule is jam-packed in the near future, especially since a sequel to The Batman is finally preparing to get off the ground.

Robert Downey Jr., meanwhile, is about to shoot Avengers: Doomsday and presumably has some kind of role as Victor von Doom, a.k.a. Doctor Doom in Avengers: Secret Wars as well. Returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to be an exceedingly time-consuming endeavor that won’t leave him much room for other artistic endeavors in the near future. Plus, Netflix has begun shifting its original film ambitions to less costly, as seen by in-development projects like the Bioshock movie getting revamped to have smaller price tags.

With that in mind, it’s tough to imagine a movie uniting two costly movie stars like Pattinson and Downey Jr. (not to mention Adams and Whitaker, among others) would even be feasible under Netflix’s new more cost-conscious cinema mold. For all intents and purposes, Average Height, Average Build is truly dead in the water. Fans of these two actors should not mourn this unrealized production too heavily, though. After all, Robert Pattinson and Robert Downey Jr. have so many other new movies on the way in the near future.

Do you wish this movie would have moved forward? Let us know in the comments below!