16 Reasons Batman Is Impossible To Cast

The people at the top of the Batman film chain (producers, directors, general suits) aren't nerds who know everything about the Dark Knight and who are working to make a wonderful film; they're throwing everything against the wall and trying to make a film that's going to make money. They don't care that Bat-Nipples or every version of a Bat-Vehicle isn't really what the character is about. They just want to make a good domestic and foreign return on their investment while selling some toys. 

The perfect Batman can mean a lot of things. Depending on which era of Batman the film you're making is inspired by, you'll have a different "perfect" actor. If you're making a movie that's inspired by his days as a detective in the '30s, you want someone who arguably looks and acts appropriate for a lithe man in his 30s. If you're leaning into the gritty world of Frank Miller's Dark Knight stories, then you need someone who's built like a tank and can act crazy with no inhibitions. This is the easiest qualifier to pull off for Batman because actors tend to look era-appropriate for whenever we're living, it's just unfortunate the preferred actor look at the moment is "wide meat man." 

If you're going to play Batman, you shouldn't have anything going on for the next ten years, because that's all you're going to be doing. Scheduling isn't the most romantic part of movie making, but it may be the most important. If you've ever tried to make a film, whether it be a short, feature, a student thing, or whatever, then you know the importance of making sure your main actors have the time to appear in your thing. If they don't, then you have to go down the list of people who aren't exactly what you want but who can show up. A Batman film is pretty much like that but with hundreds of millions of dollars behind it. If an actor really doesn't want to dedicate the better part of a decade to playing this character and dealing with the press, fallout, and everything else that comes along with it (And, honestly, why would they?), then you have to cast someone who is interested. 

There are actors who make a great Bruce Wayne, and actors who make a great Batman, but there's never been anyone who can combine those two pieces to make one perfect character. This is because they really are two different characters, and while it's hard to enough to bring one of them to life, pulling two fully formed characters out of your brain and conveying them in a way that makes sense to people watching in a theater is almost impossible. Every actor who has every portrayed Batman has focused on one aspect or the other and relied on costuming to pick up the slack. 

Not to be rude, but you people make it impossible to cast a good Batman. It doesn't matter who's chosen to play Bats after Affleck inevitably leaves the character in a huff; you're going to eviscerate him online and say that he'll never be as good as Bale, Keaton, or Heaven forbid, George Clooney. Did you ever think that you're why it's hard to cast a good Batman? Actors don't want to deal with all the garbage that comes along with it. 

On paper, a lot of actors seem like they would make a good Batman, but then when they get on set they start making weird decisions. While a lot of people like Adam West, you have to admit that he's doing a weird thing with his voice that doesn't make sense for any version of Batman (it's only now that his iteration of the character is appreciated for being camp). When you move into the modern sphere of Batman films, there are plenty of strange decisions that were made: Val Kilmer's almost-English accent, Clooney's lack of regard for anything in the film (Who can blame him?), and Ben Affleck's decision to be as wide as the state of Texas are a few things that come to mind.