Robert Pattinson says the ending of his little Batman movie sets up a sequel
For his part, Pattinson seems pretty shocked they’re going to be making sequels to the 10th live-action Batman movie
We’re roughly a month away from the latest incarnation of the Caped Crusader’s big-screen debut. The 10th live-action version of the character, The Batman, is one of the most anticipated films of the year and is most certainly Warner Bros.’ most significant franchise opportunity in some time. Heck, they’ve already given Colin Farrell’s Penguin his own TV series.
But while we’re already expecting a whole series of Pattinson-led Batman movies, the actor was a little surprised to see some sequel teases in the film. Not that he’s totally unaware that he’s in one of the biggest movies of the year, but rather because of how tonally different the movie is from what came before.
“When I saw it the first time, even from the first shot, it does feel incredibly different, tonally, to the other movies,” Pattinson said in an interview with Total Film. “And it’s so strange, and kind of… It’s sad, and quite touching. It’s a really, really unusual Batman story, and it almost seems harder for me to imagine it being a series afterwards. I mean, they always have that little bit at the end, that’s like: ‘…and coming up!’ But other than that, it feels strangely personal. I think people will be quite shocked at how different it is.”
Sequels to The Batman feel like a foregone conclusion at this point. What good is a Batman movie without several Batman movies to legitimize it? Still, Pattinson wouldn’t be the first to be surprised that his Batman movie is getting a sequel. Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012 that his infamous Joker-card sequel tease in Batman Begins wasn’t intended to set up the next movie—even though it did.
“It wasn’t really about setting up a sequel,” Nolan said. “I wanted [the audience] to leave the theater with their minds just spinning. Batman has arrived. That was always the snap of the ending. It wasn’t really until months after the film came out that I said, ‘OK, now I want to know who the Joker is.’”
Meanwhile, people keep teasing that this leads toward a future where Pattinson’s Batman squares off against Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker. Those rumors will persist, despite no official word that sequel to Todd Philips’ Oscar-winning remake of Taxi Driver is moving forward. Perhaps the greatest joke the Joker ever told was that a Joker sequel was in the works. Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.