With news this week that Ben Affleck is officially out of the cape and cowl, Warner Bros has begun the hunt for the newest Batman for Matt Reeve’s upcoming standalone ‘The Batman’ film. And apparently, they are looking for a very specific type for the role, veering away from the idea of an older caped crusader and instead, looking for someone in their early 20s. Rumor has it they are also looking for a “familiar face” for the role.
According to a recent Tweet by Justin Kroll of Variety, the folks in charge of casting seem to know exactly what they want, even to the point of shooting down actors within 7 years of age of each other, one for being “too old,” and the other for being “too young.” Check out the Tweet for yourself below:
THE BATMAN: this sounds like it could move faster then people would expect with the date set. Hearing studio wants a familiar face and Reeves has his certain age in mind and that age is very specific like I said two names within 7 years of each other; “Too young, too Old’
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) February 1, 2019
Personally, I have a few ideas for who might be a cool Batman, but I am really uncertain on who they will actually choose for this one. With the destruction of the Marvel/ Netflix MCU recently, you could easily pull a number of actors from that world and have them play Bruce Wayne / Batman, including Charlie Cox (a suggestion I saw online which I thought was hilarious and ironic, all things considered), or my other suggestion, Jon Bernthal, though I’m not sure how well he could pull off the Bruce Wayne side of things, even if he would be an awesome Batman and based on his voice when in full Punisher mode, could do a mean Batman voice. I also like the idea of Ben Barnes as Bruce Wayne, as he clearly has the swagger, but I am not sure he has the right body-type or physicality for the Batman side of things. My wildcard pick would be Michael B. Jordan, and while I know there would be a lot of arguments from people who insist that Batman has to be white, I completely disagree. In fact, I think in the case of Batman, more-so than with a lot of other heroes, his race matters very little, namely because he is rich and somewhat of an isolationist, without a lot of personal connections and backstory that would have to be reworked if you change his race. And Michael B. Jordan would be an excellent Bruce Wayne-playboy type, and after what we saw in ‘Black Panther,’ we know he could definitely be a very physical and tough as nails Batman. And since ‘Black Panther’ was so well received, he would definitely fit the “familiar face” idea that Warner Bros is looking for. But do I think Warner Brothers will go that route? No, sadly. But it would be bold, and very cool.
Do you have any suggestions for the new Batman? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments below!
