'The Batman' Trailer: Robert Pattinson Is The Dark Knight

The first trailer for The Batman arrived as part of DC FanDome, and folks – it's fantastic. I'll confess to being a little skeptical about yet another Batman movie, but everything here works, and works exceedingly well. I'm now even more excited to see what else Matt Reeves has in store for us, and how Robert Pattinson interprets the role of the Caped Crusader. Watch The Batman trailer below.

God damn. Look, I don't want to overhype things or get too hyperbolic, but this trailer owns, as the kids say. Even though I like the talent involved with this project I'll confess that a part of me was thinking, "Really? Another Batman movie?" But this trailer has sold me. While this appears to be keeping the same "real world" tone as the Christopher Nolan movies, it looks and feels different. Dirtier; grungier.

In many ways, this looks like a serial killer movie that just happens to have Batman in it. Like Seven, with Batman instead of Brad Pitt. And that use of Nirvana's "Something in the Way"? Perfection. Other things I really dug: Batman just calmly waltzing into a crime scene to talk with Gordon; Batman pummelling some goon while the camera never cuts away; Catwoman's very cute little ears on her mask; the eyeshadow visible around Pattinson's eyes when he takes his mask off.

DC is having a bit of a moment right now. Their DCEU had some stumbling blocks, but they seem to have gotten back on track now. The solution? Try anything and everything. The DCEU world still exists, but now they have alternate, unconnected worlds. One of those worlds is the one inhabited by Joaquin Phoenix's Joker. And now we have The Batman, a new take on the Dark Knight that has nothing to do with the DCEU, or any other Batman movie that came before it.

Rather than a Year One-style reboot, The Batman is taking place in year two of Batman's crusade against crime. Which is good, because we really don't need another origin story at this point. Robert Pattinson is Bruce Wayne/Batman, leading a cast that includes Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman; Paul Dano as The Riddler; Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon; John Turturro as Carmine Falcone; Peter Sarsgaard as Gil Colson, Gotham's district attorney; Jayme Lawson as Bella Reál, a mayoral candidate in Gotham; Andy Serkis as Alfred; and Colin Farrell as the Penguin.

Reeves co-wrote the script with Mattson Tomlin, with Reeves promising "an almost-noir driven, detective version of Batman," something that does indeed sound fresh. Batman is often called "The World's Greatest Detective" in the comics, but he's never really done much detective work in the movies, save for some moments here and there in The Dark Knight. Production on The Batman had to halt due to the coronavirus, but Reeves and company are hoping to get back to work next month.

The Batman opens October 1, 2021.