Nicholas Hoult, the acclaimed actor known for films like The Menu and Renfield, was one of the top choices to play The Dark Knight in Matt Reeves’ neo-noir rendition of the DC superhero, The Batman. While losing the coveted comic book movie role to Robert Pattinson is no doubt something Hoult could live with, how he found out he was unlikely to ever don the cape and cowl was pretty brutal.
In an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Hoult revealed that his hopes were dashed when he heard that Pattinson was the favorite for the new Bruce Wayne. Something he heard while listening to a radio broadcast before he had even auditioned.
“I remember a week before we did the Batman test, I was driving in my car and I had the radio on and they were talking on the radio how Rob was going to be the new Batman. And I was like, ‘It’s not confirmed yet! I’m auditioning next weekend. Give me a chance.’”
Hoult did get to audition, though, with the actor calling the process “a lot to put yourself through emotionally,” and reflecting on how he would have loved to be a part of Reeves’ movie.
“Yeah of course it’s an emotional blow. Your imagination does not know…you are aware on a practical level: ‘I know I am auditioning against Rob.’ And Rob is fantastic in that movie. That was the right decision. But you get excited by the prospect. Matt [Reeves] is a fantastic director and the script and everything, I was like ‘this is going to be a cool movie I want to be part of.’
It’s a brilliant character. There’s a weird period before you can get to the acceptance and see the movie and be like ‘that was the right choice,’ you go through the period of ‘what could I have done differently? Why not me?’ You run through all those things.”
Nicholas Hoult Will Join the DCU as the Supervillain Lex Luthor
While he almost played one of DC’s greatest heroes, Nicholas Hoult will instead join the DCU as one of its greatest villains: Lex Luthor. Hoult will give life to the iconic villain in James Gunn’s upcoming Superman reboot, a role that will officially bring the X-Men: First Class star back to the land of superheroes. The actor went on to speak about how weird the process for auditioning is today, saying:
“It’s also weird now that this process has suddenly somewhat become public. There’s plenty of times that people go and audition for things, and you never hear about it. It’s one thing to have your failures, it’s one another thing to have them publicly broadcast seemingly to everyone.”
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Robert Pattinson landed the role and The Batman, with the movie making $772.3 million at the box office, three Academy Award nominations and was one of the highest-grossing films of the year. There’s no denying it would have been a major role for Hoult. But, in the same year as The Batman, Hoult delivered a great performance in the gastronomy thriller, The Menu, and has several projects in the pipeline, including Nosferatu, Clint Eastwood’s Juror No. 2, and Superman. So, he’s unlikely to be complaining.
Batman is forced to investigate the city’s hidden corruption and question his family’s involvement when The Riddler starts killing key political figures. Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz and Paul Dano star.
- Release Date
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March 4, 2022