Robert Pattinson has suggested The Batman Part 2 will be a very different take on the DC superhero than we’ve seen before.
Pattinson is set to reprise his role as the Caped Crusader in The Batman Part 2, which has a February 18, 2028 release date. Assuming it hits that date, Part 2 will arrive in theaters just shy of six years after The Batman came out.
The movie is largely shrouded in mystery, but Pattinson has started to tease what to expect from it now he’s out and about promoting his new movie, Primetime. And in an interview captured by MYmovies on TikTok, Pattinson teased something quite different than what’s gone before.
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“Matt just wrote this amazing script,” Pattinson said of The Batman co-writer and director Matt Reeves. “I think the first one was… it’s difficult to reinvent Batman as this new thing. And then to go in another totally different direction. I’m just looking at the playback on certain things… it looks different to the first one.
“It’s just amazing. It’s a quite radical change of the script. It’s cool that Warner’s behind it, and DC. It’s just crazy. It’s a really radical retelling of Batman. I think people are going to be excited by it.”
So, what does this mean, exactly? It’s hard to tell. The Batman is a dark and gritty detective story that features a broody Bruce Wayne who struggles to stop the machinations of the Riddler. You’d imagine that Pattinson’s Batman won’t deviate too much from the version of the character we saw back in 2022, but based on what the actor’s saying here, it’s hard to predict. In truth, Pattinson is being almost comically vague about The Batman 2. Is it a courtroom drama? A psychological horror movie? A musical? Well, after Joker: Folie à Deux bombed at the box office, I doubt it’s a musical.
Perhaps The Batman 2 doubles down on the thriller aspect of its predecessor. Maybe it revolves more around its main villain, who has yet to be confirmed, than Batman. It’s unclear if Marvel star Sebastian Stan plays Harvey Dent / Two-Face, as expected, but even if he is, we’re not sure if he’s the main villain.
What we know for sure is Pattinson is finding the fight scenes in The Batman Part 2 harder than those in The Batman, now he’s in his 40s. “I’m definitely feeling my age when fighting a lot,” Pattinson told GQ. “I’m literally like, ‘Goddamn, this is significantly harder than it used to be.’ But it’s really fun. And I think the movie’s going to be pretty great. It’s got a really, really fun cast, but it’s a marathon.”
It’s worth remembering that Matt Reeves’ The Batman movies are not a part of the ongoing DC Universe, so they’re not set in the same universe as Superman, Supergirl, Lanterns, and next year’s Man of Tomorrow. Reeves’ The Batman and HBO spinoff show The Penguin are part of what is called The Batman Epic Crime Saga. James Gunn’s rebooted DCU will eventually see a fresh actor play Batman when The Brave and the Bold kicks into gear.
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Speaking of The Penguin, actor Colin Farrell has said he will reprise his role as the crime boss in The Batman Part 2, although in just two scenes. Speaking to ScreenRant in June, Farrell described the script, and his involvement in the movie.
“I got to read from the first to last page and it’s really magnificent,” he said. “I just think Matt Reeves is brilliant and he wrote, not only tonally, a really kind of dark and at times terrifying piece, and not only psychologically weighty and nuanced, but really feeling. It’s a really… There’s moments in it. It’s full of feeling. I just think he wrote kind of a contemporary genre masterpiece, really. I’m only in two scenes, which is great because it means I can enjoy the rest of the film.”
The Batman Part 2 cast:
Following a series of online teases, we recently compiled a list of everyone starring in the film, along with their roles as best we know.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.