X-Men Star Praises Robert Pattinson as The Batman After Losing Role

“Painful, but the right choice.” That’s how Nicholas Hoult describes losing the role of The Batman to Robert Pattinson in filmmaker Matt Reeves’ reboot, which the former X-Men movies star confirmed in a recent interview with The Guardian. It was reported in 2019 that Pattinson and Hoult were at the top of Reeves’ shortlist to play a younger Bruce Wayne in the second year of his career as a costumed crime fighter — and that other names floated as potential candidates included Jack Raynor (Transformers: Age of Extinction), Alexander Ludwig (The Hunger Games),Jack O’Connell (Godless), and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Avengers: Age of Ultron).

“Of course,” Hoult told GQ España when asked if he wished to play Reeves’ Batman. “I’m sure if you ask most people, they’ll tell you they’d want to portray that role. I think Matt Reeves’ ideas were fantastic and he made a brilliant movie. And I also think that Rob [Pattinson] did an amazing job with the character, and I loved seeing him in it. So I don’t think I would have done as good a job as him, ultimately. I don’t think I could have fit as well into the world that Matt created as Rob did.”

“When they tell you for the first time that it’s not you, it’s painful, but then you have to accept it as normality,” Hoult continued. “I think that’s probably a strength of mine as an actor as well. I can accept that they didn’t cast me pretty well and when I see the chosen actor doing a great job, and I enjoy it, and it’s good, I’m like, ‘oh yeah, they made the right choice. They knew what they were doing.’ So it’s not like I’m sitting there like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to watch it now.’ It’s a good movie and Rob is brilliant in it.”

In that same interview with The Guardian, the Renfield star said that in addition to screen testing for The Batman, he auditioned for roles in Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning. Hoult did land a role opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 7 — but had to drop out over scheduling conflicts with his Hulu series The Great.

Reeves and Pattinson are reuniting for The Batman — Part II, scheduled for release on October 3rd, 2025, from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures.