Robert Pattinson or Nicholas Hoult in line to be the new Batman

It looks like director Matt Reeves has found his new Bruce Wayne. Well, almost.

Reports overnight suggested that Twilight and Harry Potter star Robert Pattinson was set to take on the cowl, but Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros isn't fully decided yet.

British actor Nicholas Hoult is also at the top of the shortlist with Pattinson, though that does mean that the next Batman will most likely be British.

Whichever star claims the role for Reeves' The Batman, they'll be replacing Ben Affleck, who took the part on for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and then the Justice League movie (as well as a small cameo in Suicide Squad).

Read more: Affleck on the moment he told son he wasn’t Batman anymore

Prior to that, it was another British actor, Christian Bale, who played the Caped Crusader for Christopher Nolan.

Little is known about Reeves' vision for this chapter in the Batman series, however, other than that he was looking for a younger actor than seen in recent incarnations.

It's thought that one possible plot could be based on the comic book strand Under The Red Hood, which finds Jason Todd, Batman's former Robin, which dealt with his death at the hands of the Joker.

This incident is alluded to in Dawn of Justice (then confirmed in Suicide Squad), while an Under The Red Hood animated movie emerged from Warner Bros in 2010.

Read more: Hidden Justice League cameos in Shazam!

Pattinson upped his credentials among critics with the applauded indie Good Time in 2017, and has been landing solid roles since.

Nicholas Hoult is currently starring in Tolkien, as the Lord of the Rings writer J.R.R. Tolkien in Dome Karukoski’s biopic, and also has superhero chops, playing Beast in the X-Men series, appearing next month in Dark Phoenix.

Matt Reeves, meanwhile, comes fresh from directing the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes, and made his name with Cloverfield in 2008.

In 2017, he told Yahoo Movies UK that he was planning for his Batman film to be “very emotional”.

“I think that the metaphors of both of the franchises [Batman and Apes] enable you to tell stories that have deep emotional resonance. That’s actually what excites me about it. It’s interesting because I was obsessed with both as a child, and yet there is something potentially very adult about what you can explore under the cover of that fantasy. That is what draws me to it, and that’s what I’m excited about.”

The Batman currently has a release date of June 25, 2021 on the Warner slate.