Nicholas Hoult Recalls Hearing on the Radio That Robert Pattinson Was Batman, Yet He Was “Auditioning Next Weekend”

Nicholas Hoult is opening up about his reaction to hearing on the radio that Robert Pattinson was cast as Batman in Matt Reeves‘ 2022 movie, although Hoult was auditioning for the role the following weekend.

The actor, who is starring as Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s upcoming Superman, recently admitted on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that it was an “emotional blow” at the time as the role ultimately went to Pattinson.

“Your imagination doesn’t know [but] 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 also you get excited by the prospect,” Hoult said. “Matt is a fantastic director and the script and everything. I was like, this is going to be a cool movie and I want to be a part of it, and 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.”

The Warm Bodies actor also told host Josh Horowitz that auditioning for a role in a blockbuster comic book movie is “a lot to put yourself through emotionally.” One factor is that casting rumors are now being reported publicly in real time before final decisions are even made behind the scenes.

“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 about how Rob was going to be the new Batman,” Hoult recalled. “And I was like, ‘It’s not confirmed yet! I’m auditioning next weekend. I was like, give me a chance.’”

Though the Renfield actor was “hesitant about going through” an audition process like that again, Hoult credited Gunn for making the audition process for Superman much smoother. He initially auditioned for the titular character but he and the director later thought he would be a better fit to play the iconic villain.

“James Gunn is such a fantastic director and I was so excited by what he was building at DC,” Hoult explained. “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.’”

Superman is set to hit theaters July 11, 2025.