The Batmans new Bruce Wayne is confirmed as Robert Pattinson goes from vampire to bat

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Robert Pattinson is the new Batman. The actor, who entered the limelight as Twilight’s vampire heartthrob Edward Cullen, has been chosen by Warner Bros. to be the next to wear the cowl in the twin role of caped crusader and millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, according Deadline (opens in new tab). Pattinson reportedly edged out Nicholas Hoult (who you may know as Beast in the X-Men films) in screen tests for the role, winning the approval of director Matt Reeves for the starring role in The Batman. It’s currently planned to hit theaters 2021 (opens in new tab) with at least another two films to follow.

Recent reports had already placed Pattinson as the frontrunner for the role (opens in new tab), and it sounds like the deal is done all but for a public announcement from Warner Bros. Though Pattinson is taking over the role from Ben Affleck, Deadline’s report says The Batman will “in no way” carry on from Batman Vs. Superman (opens in new tab) or Justice League (opens in new tab). Instead it will follow Bruce Wayne in the “formative stages” of Batman.

He’ll always be our Edward, but Pattinson’s cinematic horizons have expanded quite a bit from the Twilight days. He co-starred in The Lighthouse, a horror film that got Total Film’s nod as the best film at Cannes 2019 (opens in new tab), following on from his “career-best performance” (opens in new tab) in the 2017 crime thriller Good Time.

Though we’ll be going back to a younger Batman as we did in Batman Begins, it sounds like this new film won’t start slow in introducing villains. Director Matt Reeves has teased that “there will be a rogues gallery” for our 30-something Caped Crusader to clash with. The film’s set to be “a point-of-view-driven, noir Batman tale” that emphasizes his skills as a detective, so there’d better be at least a few sets of Venetian blinds for Bruce Wayne to glower through.

See what else is on the way with our guide to upcoming DC Expanded Universe movies (opens in new tab). Or see what we thought of the last one with our Aquaman review (opens in new tab).