Nicholas Hoult Discovers He Lost the Batman Role to Robert Pattinson During Audition Preparation

Nicholas Hoult's path to the DC Universe was anything but straightforward. Before securing the role of Lex Luthor in James Gunn's Superman, he faced a significant setback when he discovered that he would not be portraying The Dark Knight in Matt Reeves's The Batman.

In a recent interview, the Skins star shared the moment he realized Robert Pattinson had been cast as Batman. “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 about how Rob was going to be the new Batman,” Hoult recounted on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “And I was like, ‘It's not confirmed yet! I'm auditioning next weekend. Like, give me a chance.'”

Pattinson ultimately starred in The Batman, which premiered in 2022, with a sequel scheduled for release in 2026. For Hoult, missing out on this iconic role was particularly disheartening. “It's an emotional blow,” he admitted.

“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,” he continued. “That was the right decision. But you get excited by the prospect. Matt [Reeves] is a fantastic director and the script is cool; it’s a brilliant character. There’s a weird period before you can get to acceptance and see the movie and be like that was the right choice; you go through this phase of ‘what could I have done differently? Why not me?' You run through all those thoughts.”

Later, Hoult auditioned for another role in James Gunn's reboot of Superman, which eventually went to David Corenswet. However, Gunn recognized Hoult's talent and cast him as Lex Luthor instead. This time around, Hoult found the audition process to be more supportive due to Gunn's awareness of his previous experience.

“James Gunn is such a fantastic director and I was so excited by what he was building at DC,” Hoult shared. “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.'”

Check out Nicholas Hoult’s interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast for more insights.