Brave and the Bold Casting Thread

[SwordOfMorning]

Pattinson came off as a kid in his 20s, in "The Batman." But a lot of that came down to his hairstyle, chosen voice, slim build and the way he was written.

Pattinson is one of those chameleon actors who could potentially transform into a role. Not as drastic as Christian Bale though.



Has that actually been greenlit by Zaslav? I thought Gunn just shared a tentative slate. Authority probably hinges on how Superman: Legacy does at the box office.

It is a different scenario casting a gay actor as Batman. Batman is WB's #1. They have to market this Batman to all the kids. I would hope it wouldn't matter about Pace being gay, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's a potential PR problem for Zazzy that he would prefer to avoid.

Why can't you market a gay actor playing Batman to kids? Maybe there would be some hesitation on the executive level about a gay man playing Batman because there will of course be outrage from online chuds about it but I'm not sure even the thus far clearly intentionally avoiding casting controversy DCU would be that cowardly. I say this as someone who has been giving Gunn a lot of **** for lack of diversity in his casting.

It would be interesting in a deeply unfun way to observe the reaction though. Pattinson is straight but there was a lot of homophobia laced into the backlash to him playing Batman and his version of the character, a lot of the "lol emo" stuff even has some subtext to it.

 

[Invader Joker]

Why can't you market a gay actor playing Batman to kids? Maybe there would be some hesitation on the executive level about a gay man playing Batman because there will of course be outrage from online chuds about it but I'm not sure even the thus far clearly intentionally avoiding casting controversy DCU would be that cowardly. I say this as someone who has been giving Gunn a lot of **** for lack of diversity in his casting.

It would be interesting in a deeply unfun way to observe the reaction though. Pattinson is straight but there was a lot of homophobia laced into the backlash to him playing Batman and his version of the character, a lot of the "lol emo" stuff even has some subtext to it.

Pace would probably be the dumbest possible choice they could have that reaction towards too. He's very private and he's as "traditionally masculine" as one could get. He's tall, chiseled, muscular, deep voiced, and the dude literally built his own house by hand. He just so happens to also be gay. Not to mention Batman is probably gonna be depicted as a straight womanizer anyway. Most people that'd watch the movie wouldn't even know the actor happens to be gay unless they googled it.

I will say tho, that no matter what reaction even the worst scum of the internet gives I really really doubt it'd be worse than the backlash Keaton, Pattinson and Affleck got though lmao I think very few actors would even come close to garnering that sort of reaction, and none of those are choices that Gunn would probably even want. I genuinely see no universe in which the reaction to Lee getting cast would even be half as toxic as the sort of responses those 3 got.

 

[Jack Reacher]

Why can't you market a gay actor playing Batman to kids? Maybe there would be some hesitation on the executive level about a gay man playing Batman because there will of course be outrage from online chuds about it but I'm not sure even the thus far clearly intentionally avoiding casting controversy DCU would be that cowardly. I say this as someone who has been giving Gunn a lot of **** for lack of diversity in his casting.

It would be interesting in a deeply unfun way to observe the reaction though. Pattinson is straight but there was a lot of homophobia laced into the backlash to him playing Batman and his version of the character, a lot of the "lol emo" stuff even has some subtext to it.

The news media would play up that WB's #1 hero (Batman) is now played by a gay actor and you'd have more conservative domestic audiences, perhaps even internationally, taking issue with that. Limiting your audience and box office.

The question is whether Zaslav and the WBD executives would care. I think they would since Zaslav is really focused on building positive momentum towards the DC and specifically Batman brand. Having the DCU's Batman launch on such a divisive and controversial tone.... I could see other studios going for that kind of risk, not so much Zaslav.

I'd love to be wrong about that, but I think we're going to get a 'play it safe' approach to the DCU after all the misfires and controversy that preceded it from previous regimes.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

The news media would play up that WB's #1 hero (Batman) is now played by a gay actor and you'd have more conservative domestic audiences, perhaps even internationally, taking issue with that. Limiting your audience and box office.

The question is whether Zaslav and the WBD executives would care. I think they would since Zaslav is really focused on building positive momentum towards the DC and specifically Batman brand. Having the DCU's Batman launch on such a divisive and controversial tone.... I could see other studios going for that kind of risk, not so much Zaslav.

I'd love to be wrong about that, but I think we're going to get a 'play it safe' approach to the DCU after all the misfires and controversy that preceded it from previous regimes.

To be totally honest, I do think that outrage merchants would latch onto Pace being gay as an issue and it would be a Thing but the dude is a traditionally masculine white guy. That makes up for a lot. Again, I'm really not happy with how the DCU seems to be limiting the net it casts in terms of actors probably specifically to avoid controversy but I genuinely don't think Pace's sexuality would be a huge issue. Especially not for Gunn himself.

 

[Invader Joker]

The news media would play up that WB's #1 hero (Batman) is now played by a gay actor and you'd have more conservative domestic audiences, perhaps even internationally, taking issue with that. Limiting your audience and box office.

To be totally honest, I do think that outrage merchants would latch onto Pace being gay as an issue and it would be a Thing but the dude is a traditionally masculine white guy. That makes up for a lot. Again, I'm really not happy with how the DCU seems to be limiting the net it casts in terms of actors probably specifically to avoid controversy but I genuinely don't think Pace's sexuality would be a huge issue. Especially not for Gunn himself.

Also, would those outlets even make /that/ much of a fuss about it? I really, really expected those hyper popular conservative media outlets to go super hard with that angle on Ezra Miller and lord knows they had a ton of ammo to use, but they barely did. And in this case they genuinely have no material to even use against Pace beyond "he's gay", which sure, some of the most bottom of the barrel outlets might use, but even organizations like Fox News I don't think are shameless enough to use that nowadays. They would if it meant Batman himself is also going to be gay in the movie, but it's obvious he isn't just from the premise alone (Batman meeting the biological son he had with a femme fatale that's a quintissential Bond-girl archetype)

 

[Chris B]

Also, would those outlets even make /that/ much of a fuss about it? I really, really expected those hyper popular conservative media outlets to go super hard with that angle on Ezra Miller and lord knows they had a ton of ammo to use, but they barely did. And in this case they genuinely have no material to even use against Pace beyond "he's gay", which sure, some of the most bottom of the barrel outlets might use, but even organizations like Fox News I don't think are shameless enough to use that nowadays. They would if it meant Batman himself is also going to be gay in the movie, but it's obvious he isn't just from the premise alone (Batman meeting the biological son he had with a femme fatale that's a quintissential Bond-girl archetype)

You'd have Tucker Carlson and the usual suspects complaining about Batman going woke and some fundamentalist Christian groups claim the "gay agenda" is being forced on kids, but I don't think it'd generate the kind of headlines in the mainstream media it may have even just 10 years ago.

 

[Jack Reacher]

Also, would those outlets even make /that/ much of a fuss about it? I really, really expected those hyper popular conservative media outlets to go super hard with that angle on Ezra Miller and lord knows they had a ton of ammo to use, but they barely did. And in this case they genuinely have no material to even use against Pace beyond "he's gay", which sure, some of the most bottom of the barrel outlets might use, but even organizations like Fox News I don't think are shameless enough to use that nowadays. They would if it meant Batman himself is also going to be gay in the movie, but it's obvious he isn't just from the premise alone (Batman meeting the biological son he had with a femme fatale that's a quintissential Bond-girl archetype)

There was enough negativity for the media to cover on Ezra Miller, without going there. Juicier headlines. And it worked, audiences were turned off and the Flash flopped.

To be totally honest, I do think that outrage merchants would latch onto Pace being gay as an issue and it would be a Thing but the dude is a traditionally masculine white guy. That makes up for a lot. Again, I'm really not happy with how the DCU seems to be limiting the net it casts in terms of actors probably specifically to avoid controversy but I genuinely don't think Pace's sexuality would be a huge issue. Especially not for Gunn himself.

Definitely not for Gunn.

I said it could be an issue for Zaslav and the WBD Brass. The current regime isn't as 'progressive' (putting it mildly) as the Ann Sarnov/Hamada regime.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Definitely not for Gunn.

I said it could be an issue for Zaslav and the WBD Brass. The current regime isn't as 'progressive' (putting it mildly) as the Ann Sarnov/Hamada regime.

For sure and one suspects that will be an issue that rears its ugly head in various forms. I'm just not positive that this would be one of them.

 

[Bran The Man]

I'd be okay with Lee Pace. He definitely looks like Bruce Wayne in most of the pics posted.

And I feel like a few years ago, Matt Bomer could have been great superhero as well. He's one of those actors that looks like both Bruce Wayne AND Superman!

 

[Invader Joker]

You'd have Tucker Carlson and the usual suspects complaining about Batman going woke and some fundamentalist Christian groups claim the "gay agenda" is being forced on kids, but I don't think it'd generate the kind of headlines in the mainstream media it may have even just 10 years ago.

To whatever extent there is controversy I'd imagine it'd be extremely localized to just a very small group of morons and also extremely shortlived because even the average conservative has enough braincells to realize that gay actors can play straight characters without it having any bearing on the performance.

For sure and one suspects that will be an issue that rears its ugly head in various forms. I'm just not positive that this would be one of them.

If anything hiring an extremely masculine white LGBTQ actor to play a straight womanizer character like Batman seems to me like the /exact/ type of "progressive" thing that executives nowadays are happy to embrace tbh. They only worry about that when there's any chance of it affecting their bottomline—here it's more than obvious it wouldn't. If you wanna go super cynical about it, it allows Zaslav and co to pride themselves on being progressive when they aren't really taking any risk whatsoever.

 

[emielaen]

The idea that they are deliberately avoiding some faux controversy with their castings is still weird to me.

 

[Boom]

Emmett Scanlan

 

[Sawyer]

Batman/Bruce Wayne - Lee Pace or Josh Hartnett

Talia - Narges Rashidi (Gangs of London)

 

[Sawyer]

And depending on how far down the rabbit hole we’ll be going with Morrison inspiration…

Professor Pyg - Paul Giamatti

 

[Invader Joker]

Seeing this picture of Lee, who's roughly the same height as Corenswet, next to Luke Evans who is 6'0 kinda put into perspective how picky I fully expect Gunn to be in regards to the height aspect for Batman because there is no way in hell the man that turned down Djimon Hounsou for Drax because he was "too short" in comparison to Chris Pratt would want this sort of height difference between Corenswet and whoever plays Batman.

It all always circles back to Lee.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Seeing this picture of Lee, who's roughly the same height as Corenswet, next to Luke Evans who is 6'0 kinda put into perspective how picky I fully expect Gunn to be in regards to the height aspect for Batman because there is no way in hell the man that turned down Djimon Hounsou for Drax because he was "too short" in comparison to Chris Pratt would want this sort of height difference between Corenswet and whoever plays Batman.

It all always circles back to Lee.

Oh my god, I didn’t know he turned down Hounsou for that. How ****ing stupid. I wouldn’t trade Bautista as Drax for the world but Gunn being unhinged about height in a way seemingly no other director is is so goddamn funny.

 

[Invader Joker]

Oh my god, I didn’t know he turned down Hounsou for that. How ****ing stupid. I wouldn’t trade Bautista as Drax for the world but Gunn being unhinged about height in a way seemingly no other director is is so goddamn funny.

Complete sidenote but I was looking for the tweet where he said the Hounsou thing (I remember it but I wanted to screenshot it) and instead found an old thread where he was arguing about Trump's real height back in 2018 lmao

 

[Invader Joker]

Found it.
So yeah, maybe 5'11 and 6'0 actors would indeed be too short to him for a Batman that's gonna stand next to a 6'4 Superman. At this point it wouldn't even shock me if he went 6'2+ only.

 

[True Grit]

You know, I think I'm sold on Lee Pace.

Sure, I don't love the age gap between him and Corenswet, but the more I think about it the more it kind of seems inevitable: they're doing Batdad with an extended Batfamily, and they'll want to distinguish their version from the Reevesverse, so why cast someone Pattinson's age to play a version of the character that's like a decade older? Might as well just go with a slightly older Batman to emphasize the difference between the two (plus, it would make casting the rest of the Batfamily so much easier). And like yeah, as others have already mentioned, age doesn't really seem to be a huge concern for Gunn if he's willing to go for an older Guy Gardner/Mister Terrific.

Gyllenhaal or Hartnett would also be fine but they're not as exciting imo. Pace has a great energy for the role, and would be a nice contrast with Pattinson. Plus he's already insanely fit, which is a big plus if the plan is to keep him around for 10+ years.

 

[Sawyer]

I’ve cooled on the idea of Gyllenhaal as Batman. Back when it seemed like Affleck was certain to be dropping out, I thought the idea had potential, but I don’t know anymore. His recent choices have been… odd.

 

[Jack Reacher]

Hartnett has a physical presense for the role that reminds me of Affleck/Batfleck.




Which would be ironic if he replaced Affleck, given their 'Pearl Harbor' connection. 23 years ago

 

[Boom]

Take with a winter's supply of salt.

 

[emielaen]

X for doubt and all

 

[Sawyer]

Not buying it.

 

[solidsnake86]

Well that would have to be one of the dumbest moves they could make. No script, a director that's likely not sticking around and you are going ahead and casting one of the biggest superhero characters of all time before another sequel to a successful batman movie begins production.

Not buying it.