Robert Pattinson Talks His Batman Meeting James Gunn’s DCU Characters
The Batman star Robert Pattinson has discussed the scenario of his take on Batman under Matt Reeves’s direction in the 2022 film and its upcoming follow-up, The Batman Part II, and how it mixes with the brand-new DC Universe (DCU), which is running alongside it under James Gunn and Peter Safran at DC Studios.
To clarify DC’s messy history with onscreen depictions and worlds, Pattinson debuted in Reeves‘ take on the Caped Crusader, which serves as a total reboot of the Batman property, in what is now known as the Batman Epic Crime Saga, comprised of the 2022 film, its upcoming sequel and third film, as well as a series spin-off titled Penguin.
This was the second DC-based film released after the abandonment of the failing DCEU, which ran from 2013 till 2023 and consisted of sixteen feature titles, after 2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux, with four films involving this universe’s Batman, who was played by Ben Affleck in a role famously cited as Batfleck. The official DC film universe has now been replaced entirely with Gunn and Safran’s DCU, which opened successfully with Gunn’s 2025 film, Superman, followed by 2026’s Supergirl by Craig Gillespie and due to continue later this year with James Watkins’s Clayface and next year with the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow.
Fans online have expressed the belief that Pattinson’s Batman, Battinson, and actor David Corenswet’s Superman can co-exist in the same universe. However, actor Pattinson isn’t so convinced.
“I think it would be kind of tough to have this version of Bruce outside of [Gunn’s] world,” the Batman actor expressed. “It’s one of the only characters, I guess, because of the length of the shoots, but also it’s such a specific kind of [style], the tone of it gets inside you.”
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Pattinson also cited the style differences between the two films as a source for this feeling, with his Gotham existing as too realistic, dark, gritty and seedy compared to the lighter, bolder and fantasy pivot seen in Corenswet’s Metropolis, even though Gotham City is named on a sign in a cameo in Gunn’s film.
“I remember that happened to me the last time I did it, it took a while. You’re just in the dark, the whole time. Both mood-wise and light-wise, I can’t see anything for like months,” Pattinson added. “It does affect you; like you feel strange afterwards.”
“The first one was a different take on a Batman movie, and this one is another… It’s a real left turn from the first one, but somehow it keeps elements of the kind of feel of it,” the actor concluded “But it just feels really ambitious, and I’m excited to see how it turns out.”
The Batman Part II is due for release 18th Feburary 2028, with Pattinson, Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell reprising their roles from the first film and Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, and Charles Dance joining as new faces. It will take place during a Gotham winter and see Batman seeping further into the city’s corruption through a new case.
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