Due to box office and critical results, following the one-two punch of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, Ben Affleck’s tenure as the Dark Knight was a relatively short one. In fact, following the latter came word that Matt Reeves, who was coming off of both Dawn of and War for the Planet of the Apes, would be taking over the Bat-franchise for a new superhero trilogy that would move the character back to his early days. Now comes word, through Variety, that the actor who is likely to step into the role is Robert Pattinson, he of the sparkly vampire sort as part of The Twilight Saga (not to mention a number of roles in well-respected indie films). Cue the Bat-fans to go nuts, and not necessarily in a good way.

History is repeating itself from 30 years ago when Tim Burton cast Michael Keaton in the role for 1989’s Batman, the release of which not only resulted in a pop culture phenomenon, but proved just how right Keaton was for the role. At the same time, there’s a lot of excitement about Reeves helming these films, and given what he accomplished with the Apes series, hope runs high.

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Michael Kovac/WireImage

At the time of the release of 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, we had the opportunity to briefly speak to Reeves and a couple of other people involved about what he would bring to Batman. Hesitant to say much, Reeves did tell us, “The only thing I can say is I’m incredibly excited about doing it. I have been obsessed with Batman since I was a child, the way that I was with Apes. I think that it’s an incredible character and I’m hoping to find a way to make it as personal and point of view-driven as I’ve tried to make the Apes films. I’m really excited about that journey.”

Andy Serkis, who stars as Caesar in the Apes films, enthused, “I think he absolutely loves the Batman stories. He’s a big fan and I can’t think of anyone else to do it, really, because he’ll give it the same level of truth and emotional centeredness. He’s just going to knock it out of the park, I think.”

Screenwriter Mark Bomback shared the feeling, opining, “It’s very exciting. I think that there’s no version of Matt doing any film that doesn’t come from the same place with emotional truth being front and center; with character being front and center. And that approach to the iconography of Batman, to me, is just beyond exciting. There is just a complexity to Batman; it has so many depths to it that you can have filmmakers as different as Christopher Nolan and Matt Reeves and Tim Burton diving in there and finding their own take.”

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