There is no genesis narrative for the Caped Crusader in The Batman, which stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne during his second year combating crime in Gotham City. There is very little information available regarding the plot of The Batman, and audiences have only seen the characters through a teaser video published during the DC FanDome event in August of next year (2019). At CinemaCon 2021, Pattinson’s Batman was revealed, and it was described as “radically different” from prior iterations – and here is what they mean.
But we know that it will have more than one villain and introduce the audience to a younger Bruce Wayne compared to prior iterations without being an origin narrative. However, even though Burton and Schumacher’s Batman films were not origin stories, Burton did return to it in Batman by having Jack Nicholson’s Joker kill Thomas and Martha Wayne. Pattinson will be in his second year of crime-fighting and is a lot younger than Bruce Wayne compared to the earlier iterations of the series.
In The Batman’s teaser trailer, fans were blown away by the brutality of the younger Batman. There is one scene in the trailer when Batman beats up an unsuspecting gang member in front of the others, telling him “I’m revenge”, followed by Oswald Cobblepot saying, “this guy’s nuts”. Robert Pattinson told in the film aired at CinemaCon that Bruce is “truly working out his wrath.” In contrast to previous iterations of the character, Pattinson’s is still driven by retribution and channelling his rage in every fight.
A lack of control over his actions could be a result of his inexperience. But it remains to be seen how this side of Bruce will play into his detective phase since he will undoubtedly have to exercise more control than he did when serving as a crime-fighting hero. Reeves’ Batman also appears to rely more on strategy and brains than high-tech equipment, which matches the film’s realistic tone and its depiction of the early years of his crime-fighting career.
For Robert Pattinson’s Batman to succeed, it must be dramatically different from previous portrayals of the Caped Crusader. Second, another Batman matches Pattinson’s style far better, which is guaranteed to impact his career in the future positively. As Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Edward Cullen in The Twilight Saga, Pattinson is best known for his roles. Although his characters in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis and the Safdie brothers’ Good Time are very different from Twilight, Pattinson has received high accolades for his performances. If Pattinson’s Batman is “radically different,” then it’s a task he can take on and succeed at transforming into his own.
As a result of the previous Batman films, Pattinson’s Batman must be distinct. Bruce’s story is told similarly by Burton, Schumacher, and Nolan. However, Batman has been played by six actors since Michael Keaton in Tim Burton’s Batman, and Warner Bros. recognises that Reeves’ version must do everything differently to be successful.
