The actor who will portray a new iteration of DC’s caped crusader shares his take on Batman’s greatest fear in the upcoming film.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Robert Pattinson is doing press tours promoting Matt Reeves’ upcoming reboot of the Batman franchise, The Batman, and is opening up about his iteration of the character while keeping most spoiler-centric details hidden. In a recent conversation with The River, Robert Pattinson talked about the greatest fear of his Batman. According to the actor, Batman’s greatest fear is the idea of his identity getting exposed. Pattinson said (via The Art of Batman),
“Perhaps his greatest fear is the mask being stripped off of him, revealing the fact that Batman is Bruce Wayne. It’s almost like death to him. He fights that way as Batman.”
In each Batman film, and even in Batman’s comic book storylines, the character has always struggled to keep his identity a secret from the world. Even in the later storylines featuring the Bat-family and the Justice League, Bruce Wayne has managed to keep the secret of his alter ego as a profoundly hidden secret from the common public and most of his villains. The idea, as thoroughly tackled in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy, has always been about Batman being a symbol beyond having a face, while the mask also protects Bruce’s loved ones from any potential harm or danger.
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The Riddler Already Knows Batman’s True Identity
Warner Bros. Pictures
In The Batman, Bruce Wayne is only in his second year of crime-fighting and vigilantism in Gotham. Given the early stages of his role as Batman, he is probably taking his secret very seriously as he struggles to establish his mantle of fear among Gotham’s baddies. Plus, keeping his identity a secret also helps him keep any attention he might attract as the wealthy billionaire away, thus keeping him out of the limelight. However, as hinted in the film’s teasers, Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne’s identity is already known to Riddler. The film’s trailer suggested that Paul Dano’s ruthless and enigmatic serial killer shares a history with the Waynes and is already aware of the fact that Batman is indeed Bruce Wayne.
This shocking revelation already puts Batman at Riddler’s trigger, making him an easy target for his nemesis. Plus, it will further allow Riddler to target Bruce through Alfred (Andy Serkis) or Selina (Zoe Kravitz) in the film, thus inciting fear of loss in him. This of course puts Bruce and his known ones at high risk and therefore, as pointed out by Robert Pattinson, could become his greatest fear in the film.
Batman is not just a vigilante but a figure of mystical legend to those unaware of his identity. This is what has always helped Bruce incite that fear of darkness in his enemies, who all fear to even come out in the open at night. Who knows what will happen if suddenly his identity is revealed to his enemies? It might lead to never-ending chaos in his life, which really is something to fear. Since The Batman serves as the first installment in a planned trilogy, serving a fresh introduction to the character though not being his origin story, it’s certain his identity won’t be publicly ousted in the film. But he surely would have to deal with the constant fear of that happening as Riddler will use this information against him in this fearful battle between the two.
The Batman is slated to release on March 4, 2022. The film is currently on schedule but may face a release delay depending on the situation of the pandemic at the time.
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Abhishek Sharma
(152 Articles Published)
He’s a cinephile, a self-proclaimed movie geek, and an avid binge-watcher; always ready to sit through a film or a television series, regardless of the genre. His love for cinema always puts him in an analysis mode, studying plot points and cinematic images. Writing for MovieWeb since February 2021, he is always looking for people and groups to discuss and drink on films.
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