The Batman (probably) won’t be going to Crime Alley to relive Bruce Wayne’s darkest day. There’s a reason for that. Director Matt Reeves has revealed that he’s approaching the iconic character slightly differently and eschewing the traditional origin story despite Robert Pattinson playing a younger version of The Dark Knight.
In an interview with Nerdist, Reeves said, “I wanted to do not an origin tale, but a tale that would still acknowledge his origins, in that it formed who he is.”
Instead of showing Martha and Thomas Wayne being gunned down after a screening of Zorro, it sounds like Reeves will be going in a different direction by instead showing how that moment shaped him in his early years donning the cape and cowl.
“Like this guy, he’s majorly struggling, and this is how he’s trying to rise above that struggle,” Reeves said. “But that doesn’t mean that he even fully understands, you know. It’s that whole idea of the shadow self and what’s driving you, and how much of that you can incorporate, and how much of it you’re doing that you’re unaware of.”
While Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins touched upon Bruce Wayne’s early crimefighting career, it didn’t expand at length on how the character grew from Ra’s-Al-Ghul’s defeat to The Dark Knight. Instead of arriving into Gotham fully formed, R-Patz’s version will seemingly struggle to fill those heavy Bat-Boots.
This new take is one that drives Reeves as he wants to stand out from the lineage of Batman’s cinematic history: “I thought, ‘Well, there’s been some terrific Batman movies,’ and I don’t want to be part of a long line of Batman movies where this is just another one. I feel like they’ve been really distinctive,” Reeves explained.
So, expect something new from The Batman. No origin re-telling, but a man who will continue to be shaped by that unseen story for as long as he’s protecting Gotham.
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