The Batman - Thoughts On The First Bits Of Casting

It's been an exciting few months for this movie, hasn't it? Back in May we found out who would be donning the cape and cowl for Matt Reeves upcoming The Batman movie and last month, three significant bits of casting was revealed.

First of all, there's Batman himself. If you had told me a few years ago that the man best known for Edward Cullen would succeed Ben Affleck, I would've probably laughed but the more I think on it, the more it's a delightfully left field bit of casting. To be fair, Robert Pattinson has proven himself over the years with his post Twilight career (and has recently turned in a rather critically acclaimed performance in The Lighthouse) and some of his comments upon getting the biggest role in his career have definitely reassured me that he's going to bring something different but worthy to the role itself.

Along with a new Dark Knight, we've also got our Catwoman in the mix and this time around, it will be Big Little Lies Zoe Kravitz as the infamous cat burglar. This isn't Kravitz's first time as Catwoman as she previously voiced the role for the 2017 movie, The Lego Batman Movie, making her first actor to play the character in different continuities as well. Kravitz's isn't the first woman of colour to play the role as we had Eartha Kitt in Batman 66 and of course, Halle Berry in 2004's Catwoman and there's also the fact that her stepfather, Jason Momoa is of course Aquaman in the DCEU to boot. Welcome aboard, Zoe.

Keeping with the Rogue Gallery members (and there are going to be quite a bunch in this movie), casting for the Riddler certainly took an interesting turn. Originally we were going to get Jonah Hill in the role but he stepped out of the running and Prisoners actor, Paul Dano will now take on the role. This version of the character will also be called Edward Nashton, which should appeal to comic book fans as more recent onscreen iterations have stuck with the Nygma surname. Whether or not the Riddler is the main antagonist of the movie though has not been confirmed.

Our last bit of casting (for now) was the confirmation of Westworld's Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon. If you needed any further proof that Matt Reeves Batman universe was a separate entity to the one previously set up by Zack Snyder and Ben Affleck, then this is all the proof you need. Wright is definitely a strong choice for Gordon and it opens up the fact that when Jim's daughter, Barbara, it will be a woman of colour as well in the role. Speaking of Barbara, seeing as there doesn't seem to be any development on the movie front (writer Christina Hodson will be penning for a certain speedster, post Birds Of Prey), I'm guessing we'll see her briefly in this movie as well before she becomes Batgirl. In short though: Wright's casting works for me.

Casting Confirmations: https://twitter.com/mattreevesLA

The Batman is in production with filming due to start in early 2020 for a June 25th 2021 release. I'll do more blogs as casting and filming progresses. So excited for this movie. 🦇