Actor Nicholas Hoult opened up on how Robert Pattinson beat him to the punch for the Batman role.
In an interview with the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Hoult said how he was not even able to audition before hearing the news of Pattinson’s casting on the radio.
“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.’”
So yeah. Unfortunately for Hoult, he did not even get a chance to act for the part before the role was given away. Interestingly, this is slightly more complicated than the original Hollywood Reporter story made it out to be. Predictably, Hoult was disappointed to lose out and expressed other emotions.
“Yeah of course it’s an emotional blow [to lose the Batman role]. 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. It’s a cool movie and I want to be a part of it. 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 different? Why not me?’ You run through all those things.”
Nicholas Hoult in ‘Superman Legacy’
Fans of Nicholas Hoult know that the actor has plenty of notable roles. He played Beast in the X-Men movies. He will also play Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s Superman Legacy. Hoult also explained how Gunn offering him the role helped him losing out on Batman.
“James Gunn is such a fantastic director and I was so excited by what he was building at DC. When we spoke…because they knew I had been through [the Batman] process, they didn’t want me to necessarily have to go through that again. That was very kind of them. There was an element of them being like, ‘We like you as an actor. We want you to be in this world.’”
Catch Hoult in Superman Legacy when it hits theaters July 11, 2025.
Source: Variety.com
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