Other than the fact they both like to dress in black, have a fondness for a tuxedo, and reign as two undisputed titans of popular culture, there aren’t too many direct comparisons to be made between James Bond and Batman.
They’ve also been the stars of many blockbuster movies that have earned billions of dollars at the box office despite varying levels of critical and audience acclaim, while you’d have to travel to the ends of the earth to find anybody who hasn’t heard of either 007 or the Dark Knight.
The Batman is less than six weeks away from coming to theaters, and director Matt Reeves is fully aware that the pressure is on for him to deliver a worthy reboot for an enduring cinematic icon, a position the next filmmaker to inherit the Bond saga will discover soon enough, now that the Daniel Craig era is over.
Speaking to MovieMaker, Reeves admitted that the sheer global appeal and popularity of the Caped Crusader is definitely on a par with MI6’s finest, not to mention the fact that he’s also an all-round cool cat.
“Batman is an amazing myth that has endured for over 80 years. And it’s because of that crazy mix. There’s a part of it that is just simply cool, right? He looks cool. He’s got a cool car. He’s got all the stuff. He’s like James Bond, I guess, in a certain way, right? But there’s also something very relatable to the pain that he’s gone through.
And so that, for me, was how you ground it — those aspects are part of the story. And this story emphasizes those things. This story pulls those things out. So that’s why I was so excited about Robert Pattinson because he’s such a wonderful actor. And I knew that he would be able to go on that search with me for the depth and complexity of this character. I mean, I knew he wasn’t going to play him straight ahead.”
Pierce Brosnan turned down Tim Burton’s Batman and was blocked from playing Bond in the 1980s, before eventually getting his shot at the latter almost a decade later through GoldenEye, but that’s as close to a crossover as we’re likely to get between the two longtime favorites.
