Robert Pattinson had a meeting with Marvel, wanted Batman because he 'has no superpowers'

Robert Pattinson has revealed why he wanted to play Batman.

The actor, known for his roles in Twilight and upcoming The Lighthouse, was confirmed to play the new iteration of the DC Comics hero earlier this year and he has spoken about his casting for the first time.

“It’s actually an interesting part,” he told Variety. “I think it’s because he doesn’t have any superpowers.”

Pattinson has always been a fan of Batman but the reason he avoided big budget movies after starring in the Twilight franchise is because the idea was daunting so he wouldn’t have said, “yes” to playing Bruce Wayne in 2012.

“I think I probably would have been a little bit nervous to have gone straight into it immediately afterwards,” he said though he did meet with Marvel near to the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, circa. 2014.

“I don’t know what I would really be chasing,” Pattinson said. “The idea of trying that transition after Twilight, I never saw a road in that direction.”

His casting in The Batman has earned a considerable amount of talk online with people both fiercely against and for it.

For Pattinson, it was somewhat of a relief that the news was met with some negative response.

“To be honest, it was less vitriolic than I was expecting,” he said. “It’s much more fun when you’re an underdog. There’s no expectation of you.”

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Not much is known about the new Batman movie other than that it is going to lean towards the detective noir genre.

“He’s supposed to be the world’s greatest detective, and that’s not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been,” Reeves told The Hollywood Reporter.

“I’d love this to be one where when we go on that journey of tracking down the criminals and trying to solve a crime.”

It was hearing that Reeves was taking the character in a younger direction that piqued Pattinson’s interest and he was chasing the director for a while to meet. When they eventually met, the actor had “come with this pad full of notes” and later was busy learning lines in his hotel during the promotion of The Lighthouse at Cannes.

When he eventually tried on the Batsuit for the screen test, Pattinson said the way you have to put it on “is pretty humiliating” but once it was “you do feel very powerful immediately.”

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He got the confirmation call on his first day shooting Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and says it was a brilliant coincidence because he could as The Dark Knight Trilogy director questions about Batman.

“I was talking about things to do with the Batsuit,” Pattinson recalls. “How to get more movements in it.”

Pattinson can next be seen in The Lighthouse, in cinemas from 17 January 2020