'The Batman' Will Lean Into Bruce Wayne's Trauma, According To Its Co-Writer

DC FanDome is just over a week away, and we're expecting that virtual convention will reveal some news about director Matt Reeves' hugely anticipated upcoming superhero film The Batman. But in the meantime, that film's co-writer has spoken about how the new movie is going to deal with Bruce Wayne's trauma.

In an interview with Den of Geek, The Batman co-writer Mattson Tomlin talked about how Robert Pattinson's version of The Dark Knight will be different than the Christian Bale or Ben Affleck iterations of the character.

"It's the early days," he said. "I think that, first of all, it's a younger version than the most recent versions that we've seen. I think that Matt Reeves as a filmmaker, if you look at any of his work, whether or not it's Let Me In or Cloverfield or the Planet of the Apes movies, he's always coming from a point of emotion. It's never the big action thing. It's always, what is this character's soul? I think that really looking at Batman as somebody who has gone through this trauma, and then everything that he's doing is then a reaction to that, rather than shy away from that, I think this film leans into that in some very fun and surprising ways. I think that's all I can say without getting yelled at."

In the past, Pattinson has talked about how "Batman's not a hero," leading us to wonder what his take on this character might be. In another interview, he explained part of the reason he took the role was to put his own specific spin on this legendary character who's been played several times before: "You've seen this sort of lighter version, you've seen a kind of jaded version, a kind of more animalistic version," he said. "And the puzzle of it becomes quite satisfying, to think: Where's my opening?"

Reeves has previously said that this iteration of Batman/Bruce Wayne will be "majorly struggling," and Tomlin's comments seem to hammer home the idea that this could be a far more raw, and potentially even more unhinged version of the character than we've seen before. So far, I think Michael Keaton might hold the crown in terms of portraying the character as slightly deranged. (Val Kilmer's Wayne regularly interrogated his own trauma, but was more sensitive about it than Keaton's manic performance.) But it certainly sounds like Pattinson could give him a run for his money in The Batman, and we'll find out when the film arrives in theaters (maybe?) on October 1, 2021.