Robert Pattinson has had quite the glow-up from his days as a sparkly vampire in Twilight to now helming the role of another nocturnal creature as the title role in The Batman.
Though Pattinson’s wooden performance as Edward Cullen in the Twilight films has been mocked by many, and garnering a few Razzie nominations along the way, the actor has done much to take a batarang to his pre-teen pinup image — pairing up with a number of auteur directors over the years, roughly beginning with the decision to star in David Cronenberg’s 2012 thriller, Cosmopolis.
Since then, Pattinson has pretty much completely redeemed himself in the eyes of critics, making riveting portrayals in numerous films, such as the slimy protagonist in the Safdie Brothers’ 2017 crime drama Good Time, a mentally unstable 19th-century laborer in Robert Eggers’ 2019 horror film The Lighthouse, and portraying an absolute scene-stealing corrupt preacher opposite Tom Holland in the rural gothic film The Devil All the Time.
All of that good will he courted with critics still did little to quell the expected fan backlash that accompanied Pattinson’s casting announcement in 2019 for the role of the Dark Knight. However, Pattinson said that the negative reaction was somewhat less than he would’ve expected.
“I was actually mocked less than I usually am,” the actor said with a chuckle in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “I was quite shocked. ‘Only 70% negative? A-plus!'”
In all fairness to Pattinson, almost every cinematic version of Batman and associated characters has experienced some kind of backlash when the actor was announced, including for Heath Ledger as Joker in what became a posthumous Oscar-winning turn in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight in 2008.
Even Michael Keaton, whose performance as Bruce Wayne in 1989’s Batman is now considered a classic, had fans petitioning against his casting in the days before the internet.
The Batman swings into theaters March 4.