Fans hoping to see Robert Pattinson’s Batman meet David Corenswet’s Superman may need to keep waiting. Pattinson says the bleak, highly specific world created by director Matt Reeves would make moving his Bruce Wayne into James Gunn’s wider DC Universe rather difficult.

The prospect has attracted plenty of speculation since Corenswet made his Superman debut in 2025. Pattinson’s The Batman, however, arrived before Gunn established the new DCU and remains part of its own continuity. Gunn previously told ET that bringing Pattinson into the franchise “isn’t what’s happening right now”. That wording did not completely close the door, because superhero announcements apparently require the precision of international treaties.

Why would this Batman struggle in the DCU?

Speaking to LADbible ahead of the release of Primetime, Pattinson discussed how his Batman might interact with the less severe characters occupying other parts of the DC franchise.

His co-star Skyler Gisondo plays Jimmy Olsen in Superman, making him a useful test case. Pattinson joked that his solution would be to “make the other characters more serious”, although he sounded less convinced when considering whether this version of Bruce could genuinely function outside Gotham.

“I think it would be kind of tough to have this version of Bruce outside of that world,” he said. Pattinson explained that the character’s effect comes partly from the lengthy shoots and partly from the films’ unusually precise style and tone.

Matt Reeves’ Gotham is darker than the DCU projects released so far, both emotionally and in the more practical sense that its lighting department appears suspicious of bulbs. Pattinson said that atmosphere stays with him long after filming ends.

What made filming The Batman so difficult?

Gisondo filmed Superman in Atlanta, while Pattinson described Gotham’s less glamorous physical location as “a shed in Watford”. He spent roughly eight months working in darkness, with little sense of connection to the outside world.

“There’s something so destabilising about when you’re just, you’re in the dark the whole time,” Pattinson said. “I mean just for eight months in the dark and you literally have no conception of being connected to anything in the world.”

He added that it became “difficult to even maintain your sanity”. The actor recalled experiencing the same effect after his previous Batman shoot, saying it took time to recover because the darkness worked on two levels.

“You’re just in the dark, the whole time. Both mood-wise and light-wise, I can’t see anything for like months,” he said. “It does affect you, like you feel strange afterwards.”

Pattinson did not completely rule out a crossover, but he joked that Bruce Wayne might spend another DC film hiding behind his hands and saying, “I can’t see.” It would be an unusual contribution to a superhero team, though not necessarily the least practical one ever written.

How does Primetime connect Batman and Jimmy Olsen?

Pattinson and Gisondo appear together in Primetime, a film based around Chris Hansen and the television series To Catch a Predator. Pattinson plays Hansen, while Gisondo portrays Dan Plum, a fictional character combining elements of the decoys who posed as children during the programme’s investigations.

Merritt Wever plays Andie Bender, another composite character based on producers who worked behind the scenes. Gisondo joked that accepting the film meant “Batman and Jimmy Olsen going after paedophiles”, which he described as a “pretty cool idea”. It is not the DC crossover audiences expected, but technically the casting department got halfway there.

Gisondo is also set to reprise Jimmy Olsen in the DC television series The People vs Gorilla Grodd.

Primetime opens in the United States on 25 September 2026 and in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2026.