A Batman to Bond déjà vu

Exactly a week ago in the endless Bond speculation, Callum Turner had moved into the lead (again)… but the last time I posted about the search for Bond last Wednesday, I noted Callum’s recent ubiquity: “is the reverse psychology here that maybe he IS NOT Bond since he’s been so visible lately?”

And then two days later, a major development. Multiple Hollywood trades reported late Friday that the aforementioned mystery actors who have recently screen-tested are Robert Pattinson and Nicholas Hoult, adding a whole new dimension to the sweepstakes. And a bit of déjà vu – because this was exactly the situation seven years ago during the casting process for the new Batman, it reportedly came down to Robert and Nicholas, obviously with RP prevailing in the end.

The reaction to the news that Robert Pattinson is now part of this has changed the complexion of the conversation in terms of the direction of the new Bond. When RP was first announced as the new Bruce Wayne, I called him Millennial Batman, a Batman for the awkward and weird, less playboy and more freak. And this is why there are so many people who are that much more excited with his name in the mix, because it’s hard to imagine him delivering some of Bond’s cheeseball lines (by 2026 standards) without a little kinky edge.

But Nicholas Hoult is a freak too! That’s probably why, once again, their names are linked in a high-profile casting marathon. Kayleigh Donaldson wrote about Nicholas’s increasingly signature weirdness last year so don’t sleep on his ability to sprinkle some offbeat sauce on a character that’s about to be rebooted for a new generation.

Robert Pattinson has a bigger profile, no doubt. And Gen Z is obsessed with him, so already the internet is that much more obsessed with this situation now that he’s a possibility. Plus Denis Villeneuve just worked with him on Dune: Part 3 so I imagine Denis had some part in convincing him to consider it, although I’m not sure Denis had to work that hard. RP likes to front like he’s on the margins of Hollywood but you can’t be Batman and work with Christopher Nolan (twice) and the face of Dior without calculation. The way Gen Z has perceived him, like he’s the ultimate fringe “indie” actor, betrays their actual understanding of how Hollywood works. Kristen Stewart is way more fringe and indie than RP, if we’re comparing Twilight origins. (Speaking of Twilight though, it was recently announced that they’re doing a two-season series of Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun, the companion book that is Twilight but from Edward Cullen’s point of view.)

Can we pull back on this Bond thing though, I mean all the way back and not just focus on the latest casting rumours but how the casting itself has become its own TV show with new episodes dropping every week? At this point I don’t think sources are going rogue and sharing the details without permission. At this point it feels like all of it has become strategic, a new kind of marketing in our time of constant content to satisfy an insatiable public that needs to be fed with more. If that’s the case, it’s a bold plan on behalf of the studio’s comms team, to turn the search for Bond into an online saga as a form of engagement but, like, I wonder how the actors feel about it. None of them are being paid to become part of what’s amounting to a gossip limited series that, really, only benefits Amazon. Should this kickstart a casting trend in Hollywood, like an unofficial reality show over the casting of high-profile roles, sooner or later the agents and managers are going to want to work in some fees.

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