Well that didn’t take long. Just yesterday a report surfaced that Warner Bros. was looking to cast an older actor as Batman in director Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel follow-up Batman vs. Superman, and now a shortlist of actors that the studio is reportedly eyeing to don the cowl has surfaced. For this new film, Warner Bros. is said to be looking to capture the tone of the Batman/Superman relationship from Frank Miller’s graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, so that gives us a head start as to what kind of Batman the studio is trying to cast.
It’s decidedly early in the process since David S. Goyer has only just started working on the screenplay for the superhero pic, but there appears to be an eclectic list of names that the studio and Snyder are beginning to consider. Hit the jump to read on.
The folks over at Heat Vision have some firm details on what Warner Bros. is looking for in its new Batman, noting that this film’s Bruce Wayne will be in his late 30s or around 40 and will be “established and rugged.” They have also confirmed that we will not be seeing the origin story again.
The report cautions that the script is still being written so nothing has been formally submitted to actors or agents, and they also note that Snyder has literally only just begun to start looking at actors to play Batman. That being said, multiple sources say 46-year-old Josh Brolin is the frontrunner at the moment, as Warner Bros. is high on the Gangster Squad actor. This is a name that has come up a few times in the weeks since the Comic-Con announcement, and I don’t have any major complaints about the choice.
Also in the mix, according to the report, are Ryan Gosling (32), Joe Manganiello (36), The Hobbit star Richard Armitage (41), Matthew Goode (35), and Pacific Rim actor Max Martini (43). Gosling is the youngest on the list by a fair amount, but Manganiello is notable because he was apparently neck-and-neck with Henry Cavill in Snyder’s casting process for Man of Steel. The major difficulty with Manganiello, though, is working around his schedule on the HBO series True Blood. Goode obviously has a relationship with Snyder already from appearing in Watchmen, and Martini and Armitage are decidedly fresh choices as both actors remain fairly unknown to the general public.
Again, it is extremely early in the casting process for Batman vs. Superman so please remember that this is not the finalized list of choices for who will play Batman; it’s entirely possible that Snyder could go with a different actor altogether. Personally, I’m bummed to see that 42-year-old Jon Hamm isn’t on the list. He’s got the physique, he has phenomenal range, and Mad Men proves that he can brood like nobody’s business. I’m not sure if Hamm has already taken himself out of contention or if there’s a scheduling issue (the latter is very possible), but it’s hard to believe that Snyder is simply uninterested in the actor for the role.
Warner Bros. wants to get filming underway on Batman vs. Superman in early 2014 so that the film can make its proposed 2015 release date, so we should hear solid casting news on the pic in the coming weeks. Of the aforementioned choices, who do you think is the best choice for our new Batman? Sound off in the comments below.
