Social media comments section may tell you one story: Robert Pattinson is the absolute worst choice to play Batman ever. (In case you didn’t know, three weeks ago, Robert Pattinson was officially cast as the new Caped Crusader in Matt Reeves’ upcoming neo-noir Batman film). Regardless of how much you inform people of Pattinson’s post-Twilight indie work, haters will still choose to be ignorant and instead spam the comments section with Edward Cullen memes and lines about how Batman is going to start sucking blood, not to mention the barrage of homophobic comments as well.
But, believe it or not, outside the toxic comments section, things are looking pretty positive for Robert Pattinson. Days after Pattinson had been officially picked as the titular character, The Hollywood Reporter ran a Batman-related survey among 2201 American adults, where participants were asked to pick between Pattinson, Nicholas Hoult (who was also a front runner to play The Dark Knight) and “no opinion.”
The survey finds that 42% of those in the 18-29 bracket are in favour of Matt Reeves’ casting choice, while only 30% picked Nicholas Hoult. The number is even higher at 48% if the age range is reduced to 18-22. Interestingly enough, Pattinson also slightly edges out Hoult in the age 65 and up category — 21% to Hoult’s 18%. However, things are different in the age 45-54 and 55-64 categories, where Hoult beats Pattinson by 7% in both categories. In the age 30-44 categories, things are rather neck and neck. 36% prefer Nicholas Hoult, while 35% are in support of Robert Pattinson.
Seeing as how the largest movie-going demographic, age-wise is those aged 18-39, it’s safe to say that Robert Pattinson’s casting was the right choice, at least popularity wise. Heck, even talent-wise, Pattinson has over the years proven himself to be one of the most underrated actors in the world. We only need to look at films like Good Time and The Rover. Robert Pattinson has all the potential in the world to be a fantastic Batman. Of course, this isn’t to say that Nicholas Hoult would have been a bad choice. The dude can act really well too.
The Batman will reportedly begin production in the first quarter of 2020 and be released in June 2021.
