After watching Robert Pattinson’s performance in a delightfully weird 2025 movie, I’m convinced The Batman 2 could perfectly pull off a storyline that I previously wasn’t sure it could. Both Batman and Robert Pattinson have seen some major cinematic successes of late, with the actor starring in lively and audience-capturing movies like 2019’s The Lighthouse and 2020’s Tenet, and Batman welcoming in a new DC movie world with Pattinson at the helm via 2022’s The Batman, and the also critically-acclaimed The Penguin spinoff two years later.
In recent years, it’s seemed to me as though Robert Pattinson has gone from strength to strength in his filmography. Pattinson has an uncanny ability to add depth and a lived-in quality to all of his characters, be they The Batman‘s Batman, a goblin-like creature who can transform into a heron in The Boy And The Heron, or a lighthouse keeper who loses touch with reality in specular fashion, as per The Lighthouse. Excitingly, I think 2025 continues this history of hits, which bodes well for one direction it appears the story of The Batman 2 may be aiming towards.
The Batman’s Bruce Wayne Is A Long Way From The Usual Depictions Of Batman’s Alter Ego
The Batman provides a suitably dramatic and brooding picture of a younger Bruce Wayne, who’s still finding his footing as a hero in the live-action Batman movie after committing to becoming Gotham’s own home-grown vigilante. As such, it makes sense that this depiction of Bruce is very different to the traditional well-established version of the Wayne mogul, since he’s had less time to cultivate the artificial vapid celebrity persona Batman generally uses to ensure nobody suspects he is a superhero, and because his grief is still seemingly too raw for him to do much other than be the Caped Crusader.
Throughout The Batman, it’s suggested that Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne has essentially shut himself away from the world for a good chunk of recent history, mainly venturing out as Batman instead in order to try and protect his city. While this makes a lot of logical sense – as the injuries Bruce would get in his early days as Batman especially would justify him spending a lot of his time recovering at home, or just building and refining his equipment – it is something The Batman‘s ending suggests is set to change, with the hero realizing his current approach needs to be altered.
This would most logically lead into Batman adjusting to methodology conventionally employed by his other comic and movie counterparts, with him taking a less “vengeance” focused approach as the Dark Knight, and bringing Bruce Wayne back into the limelight so he can use his money for philanthropy, while also covering his proverbial tracks and ensuring nobody suspects anything about his secret idenтιтy. That said, it seemed like this transition may be a bit too sharp of a change to pull off – until Robert Pattinson proved he was more than capable of pulling this off perfectly with one 2025 movie release.
Mickey 17 Proves Robert Pattinson Could Definitely Pull Off Bringing Bruce Wayne Into His Classic Persona In The Batman 2
The dark sci-fi comedy Mickey 17 sees Robert Pattinson take on a uniquely challenging role, as he stars in the movie as two different clones of the same person at the same time. Mickey Barnes’ seventeenth clone (known as Mickey 17) is characterized as a relatively meek and mild-mannered individual, who is simply trying to get through his nightmarish job as an expendable clone who is sent into ᴅᴇᴀᴅly scenarios. Comparatively, Mickey 18 shows more frustration and aggression about not only his situation, but the unfair society of the space colony the pair find themselves in.
Pattinson’s ability to depict the character in two such different ways – and yet in a manner where you can get the sense that they are one and the same, and that Mickey 18 simply has a different way of expressing many of the ideas that his predecessor tried to keep bottled up – make the transition between the two very contrasting versions of the same person feel surprisingly natural, even though their differences are emphasized. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some viewers have already compared the more action-oriented Mickey 18 to Pattinson’s Batman, but this also raises another interesting concept.
The Batman‘s brooding Bruce Wayne seemed like he may not be suited to the Bruce Wayne facade other versions of the hero employ. However, I think Pattinson’s talented performance in Mickey 17 highlights how effectively he can take a character from one end of a characterization spectrum to another, and serves as a prime example of just how possible the story avenue could be for the DC sequel. Given how The Batman 2 is positioned story-wise, this looks like it could be promising for the path the series may well end up taking.
Why Bruce Wayne ᴀssuming His “Billionaire Playboy” Persona Would Make Sense In The Batman 2 After The Original Movie’s Ending
The Batman‘s ending shows the hero considering how to change his ways and look at actively helping the people of Gotham as much as possible, with his efforts to ᴀssist in evacuating vulnerable citizens after The Riddler successfully floods Gotham serving as an example of the less destructive ways someone like The Dark Knight can lend his aid. Following this, The Penguin sets up a scenario in which Gotham will be in need of help that can’t be provided by fights alone, as the тιтular antagonist now seemingly has sway over the government via his collusion with Councilman Sebastian Hady.
Given The Penguin ends without Batman having ever appeared, it’s possible his absence in the story has been partially due to the character making more efforts to appear as Bruce Wayne during the process of rebuilding Gotham after the floods, since Bruce is likely to have donated considerably to any projects in this vein.
This backdrop paints a picture wherein Bruce Wayne may be a more useful alias to use in some scenarios, as Wayne’s financial sway and position among Gotham’s elite would theoretically allow him access to people and places that would be far more complicated for his vigilante self to get a foothold in without tipping others off that Batman is on their case. As such, having Bruce Wayne begin to establish the playboy billionaire persona in The Batman 2 can help obscure his true intentions and make Bruce just as useful as Batman in the character’s mission to better Gotham.
Upcoming DC Movie Releases
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Superman
- Release Date
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July 11, 2025
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Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow
- Release Date
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June 26, 2026
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The Batman Part II
- Release Date
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October 1, 2027
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