Fandom is a tricky thing. With social media giving everyone a voice, no matter how great or terrible those voices are, talking about superhero films is a bit of a warzone. Are you Team Marvel? Team DC? Do you like Zack Snyder? Are you angry about “Captain Marvel?” On and on and on, these debates rage with no end in sight. So, for actors that take a role in these films, they suddenly find themselves knee-deep in the discussion, whether they like it or not. And for Robert Pattinson, who plays the title character in the upcoming film “The Batman,” he’d rather not be the center of any debates in the superhero fandom.
In a new interview with Time Out, the actor, who is most famous for being the heartthrob from “Twilight,” as well as a more recent indie darling, discussed the reaction to a comment that he made weeks ago about how Batman wasn’t a real superhero, where he said that Batman “doesn’t count [as a superhero], you need to have magical powers to be a superhero.”
READ MORE: Robert Pattinson Doesn’t Like It When Batman Is Called A “Superhero”
As you might expect, fandom got all up in arms with people saying that Pattinson didn’t understand the character and that he’s a terrible choice to play the role, blah blah blah. Long story short, the actor found himself in a controversy he wasn’t intending. Now, he’d like to clarify.
“I wasn’t educated about the subject,” the actor said, jokingly. “People got very angry about it. It’s bizarre. I still can’t understand the argument. Okay, he’s a superhero, I’m sorry! The next headline: ‘Pattinson retracts: Batman is, in fact, a superhero. He takes it back.’”
He added, in a more serious statement, “I’m only worried about if people like it when it’s done. Right now, people can think what they want.”
Even though we’re still a year and a half away from seeing Pattinson don the cape and cowl in Reeves’ “The Batman,” the actor admitted that the idea of him being a superhero is something he still is having trouble recognizing.
“It’s the coolest thing ever. I still can’t really believe it,” Pattinson said.
As mentioned, “The Batman” doesn’t hit theaters until June 25, 2021, so there’s still plenty of time for Pattinson to say something else that gets fans all riled up. But it appears that even if that happens, the actor would rather everyone just wait and see what happens in the film before they tear him apart. Clearly, Pattinson doesn’t know how the internet works. Sadly, fans reserving judgment until a film is released will never happen.