Like all things involving comic book casting, the recruiting of Robert Pattinson to play Batman in a forthcoming reboot of the Caped Crusader was met with exhausting backlash across social media upon its announcement. But now a producer on the franchise has defended Pattinson’s casting.
Speaking at Germany’s CCXP Cologne Convention (via Comic Book), producer Michael E Uslan stated that Batman as a character is more important than whoever plays him, and that fans should give Pattinson a chance.
“The star of the Batman movies is Bruce Wayne. Batman is the star,” Uslan said. “Batman is who everyone wants to see, along with the supervillains, so how does a filmmaker make the choice of which actor to cast? And I think the real key question for fans, and for all of us to focus on, is the filmmaker. My position is this: trust the filmmaker and give the filmmaker, and the filmmaker’s vision, the benefit of the doubt. Then wait ’til you see the movie.”
He continued, “Then once you see the movie, judge the hell out of it. But I think that’s really the formula going forward. I couldn’t be happier, I couldn’t be more enthused, as a Batman fan, that Matt Reeves is the filmmaker in charge and has selected Robert Pattinson to be his next Batman.”
Pattinson is starring as the Dark Knight in Reeves’s The Batman, which has been rumoured not to be an origin story, and may feature Catwoman and The Penguin as villains. It is scheduled to be released 25 June 2021.
