Nicholas Hoult Recalls the Moment He Learned Robert Pattinson Landed Batman Role—Right Before His Own Audition

On a recent episode of Happy Sad Confused, Nicholas Hoult shared that he found out Robert Pattinson had been cast as Batman through a radio announcement—just days before his own scheduled audition for the role. Here’s what Hoult had to say about narrowly missing the chance to play the iconic superhero:

Yeah of course it’s an emotional blow. Your imagination does not know…you are aware on a practical level: ‘I know I am auditioning against Rob.’ And Rob is fantastic in that movie. That was the right decision. But you get excited by the prospect. Matt [Reeves] is a fantastic director and the script.

It’s a cool movie and I want to be a part of it. It’s a brilliant character. There’s a weird period before you can get to the acceptance and see the movie and be like that was the right choice, you go through the period of ‘what could I have done different? Why not me?’ You run through all those things.

I remember a week before we did the Batman test, I was driving in my car and I had the radio on and they were talking on the radio how Rob was going to be the new Batman,” Hoult said. “And I was like, ‘It’s not confirmed yet! I’m auditioning next weekend. Give me a chance.’

Though he missed out on the role of Batman to Pattinson, Hoult is now set to take on the iconic role of Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s upcoming DCU project, Superman.

James Gunn is such a fantastic director and I was so excited by what he was building at DC,” Hoult said. “When we spoke…because they knew I had been through [the Batman] process, they didn’t want me to necessarily have to go through that again. That was very kind of them. There was an element of them being like, ‘We like you as an actor. We want you to be in this world.’

Watch Hoult’s full interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in the video below:

Who do you think was the better choice for Batman—Hoult or Pattinson? Share your thoughts in the comments below!