Why Robert Pattinson should be the only choice for the DCU's Batman

I'm not going to be going over anything new here. In fact, I imagine a lot of you also think that Battinson should be fighting alongside David Corenswet's Superman in the (hopefully) near future. The problem is - at least at the time of writing - James Gunn has been very adamant that Matt Reeves' The Batman universe remains part of Elseworlds. That means that a new Batman is very much on the cards...while we have one of the best Batmen also getting a trilogy of his own.

Two Batmen appearing concurrently in two different universes sounds like a recipe for disaster. Even if you don't think Battinson is the greatest pick for the world's greatest detective, surely we can all agree that sounds like a madly confusing time for the general audience. You'd also be setting up direct comparisons and a competition between the concurrent Batmen. Whoever gives the better performance will be seen as the definitive version of the character, and that will be that. If Marvel has proven anything in recent years, it's having multiversal shenanigans is good only for a cheap pop. People care about consistent, shared stories that play off one another, rather than individual messes of desperate calls to increasingly diminishing nostalgia.

The other option, then, if James Gunn and Peter Safran really can't make anything work out with Matt Reeves is to wait until the director is done with his own trilogy. Equally not a good idea. The Batman's sequel will release in 2027, with a third part likely going to take a few years to release after. Robert Pattinson will likely be well in his 40s by then, and the DCU will have progressed so much on its own that Batman will only become notorious in his absence.

The style of The Batman might not mesh with the action-packed, goofier Superman, but what are comic book and superhero stories if not diverse? Batman and Superman have always been clashing ideals, and yet I don't think that has ever been better put into live-action than with The Batman and Superman. A happy accident, certainly, but one that Warner Bros. should certainly be looking to take advantage of.

Compromises will of course have to be made. I don't think Bruce Wayne from The Batman's world will be fighting kaiju like the one we saw in Superman anytime soon, but the boy scout and troubled emo aesthetics of Corenswet and Battinson already look like they could lend quite beautifully to a team-up. What they have in common is much stronger than the Snyderverse Batman and Superman, anyway. Unlike edgy, Henry Cavill Superman, Corenswet's charming superhero is always looking to save as many lives as possible. Battinson, despite not always succeeding, seeks to do the same. Look at the last act of The Batman, for example. Batman is willing to throw his life away to prevent an electrical wire shocking people stranded in a flood, then spends his last moments of the film helping civilians to rescue vehicles, despite being heavily injured himself.

Both The Batman and Superman (2025) understand the idea of a hero better than most recent superhero outings. They focus on their central characters so strongly that actually their alter-egos are left feeling a bit unknown. These strengths mean that despite stylistic differences (and the constant questions people would ask Matt Reeves about why Superman didn't help during the events of The Batman), these two characters really could shine brightly on the screen together.

Among rumours of different castings and actors coming out of the woodwork saying they'd love to play Batman, I might sound like a bit of a petulant child, but I would rather see no Batman at all (until Reeves is done) than see another caped crusader hit the streets of the DCU's Gotham. I think that James Gunn and Peter Safran's story could survive and even thrive without a Batman. Mr. Terrific played a Batman-like role in the story of Superman, a straight-talking technical whiz mostly without super powers.

The only issue I could really see with introducing Battinson is that I can't see his character evolving alongside Robin, Nightwing, the Red Hood, Batgirl, and all the other members of the Bat family. Perhaps The Batman: Part II could change that, but I've always seen Battinson as a solo player, tested by the limits of what he and he alone can accomplish.

That might put a major spanner in the DCU's works, and if it does, then I'll eat a big ol' slice of humble pie. If it doesn't, though, and there's a way to work Robert Pattinson into the DCU, then I want to live in that timeline. I don't think we'll hear anything about this or see any confirmation until The Batman: Part II, so unfortunately we'll be holding our breath for a while, fellow Battinson heads.