The Bat (2021 Television Series)

The Bat is an upcoming American television series developed for HBO and HBO Max by Matt Reeves, based on the Comix character Batman, a costumed crime-fighter, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The series is produced by HBO Entertainment in association with Comix Television, Warner Bros. Television Studios, and 6th and Idaho Productions, with Reeves, Kevin Feige, Zack Snyder, and Greg Weisman serving as showrunners. Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, and Emma Thomas served as consultants.

The Bat stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, a billionaire socialite who returns to Gotham City after a ten-year trip to fight crime and corruption as a masked vigilante using nothing but his skills and wits. Sean Pertwee, Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, Chris Chalk, Morena Baccarin, Colin Farrell, John Doman, and David Mazouz also star, with Grayson McCouch and Brette Taylor joining them for season one.

In August 2010, Ben Affleck began developing a second television series for his production company, Pearl Street Films, with Geoff Johns, focusing on a young Bruce Wayne before he became Batman. In January 2014, Affleck stepped down from the project after struggling with a decent storyline. Reeves took over Affleck's duties the following month and reworked the story to focus on the origin of Batman while flashbacks would detail Bruce Wayne's life up to the events of present day, especially hoping to emphasize the detective aspect of the character to a greater extent that previous incarnations. In March 2014, HBO officially hired Reeves and ordered a seasons worth of 40 episodes before eventually expanding it to 3 seasons worth of 120 episodes and was announced to be among the first programming available for HBO Max. Pearl Street Films and Johns stepped down from all involvement in January 2016 and Pattinson was cast the following May.

The Bat is scheduled to premiere in October 1, 2021.

Premise
The Bat follows billionaire socialite Bruce Wayne who returns to Gotham City after a ten-year absence to fight the crime and corruption that plagues his beloved home city as both a benevolent businessman and cold masked vigilante while flashbacks will feature his struggle against the criminal underworld of Gotham City as a teenager and young adult.

Cast and Characters

 * Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne: A billionaire socialite and CEO of Wayne Enterprises who dedicates himself to protecting Gotham City from its criminal underworld as a masked vigilante and eventually adopts the symbol of a bat to strike fear into the hearts of criminals. Bruce is around 30 years old at the start of the series and could be considered both a beginning superhero and experienced crime fighter despite the narrative depicting him becoming Batman. Producer Matt Reeves stated: "I just felt like well, what I'd love to do is to get a version of this Batman character where he's not yet fully formed. Where there's something to do in this context with who that guy would be in this world today, and to ground him in all of these broken ways. Because at the end of the day, this guy is doing all of this to deal with trauma in his past." Pattinson described his Batman as flawed, unlike traditional comic book characters, finding the characters lack of superpowers interesting and said his voice was inspired by that of his co-star Williem Dafoe's role in The Lighthouse (2019). In preparation, Pattinson trained in several martial arts, including Judo, Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with John Wick alumnus Rigan Machado and said that he wanted to "learn and achieve" something new with the role as a different character from himself and to undergo physical change, citing actors Dwayne Johnson, Keanu Reeves, and former showrunner Ben Affleck as pioneers of this within the genre of filmmaking and as influences for taking the part in new ways.
 * David Mazouz as Young Bruce Wayne: The son of Thomas and Martha Wayne with a particular penchant for combat and investigation.
 * Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth: Bruce Wayne's butler, surrogate father figure, legal guardian, trusted confidant, and a former SAS operative. Pertwee described his take on Alfred as being "quite a different Alfred than we have seen so far. Matt Reeves had very clear views about what he wanted. I would say he's more hands-on perhaps than just a butler."