It's going to be a tough batline to toe. If he's steering into the story-rich Bat Family skid, James Gunn needs to find a Dark Knight who can balance the jaw-clenching grit of Gotham's shadowy protector with the frat boy lacrossey-ness of Bruce Wayne and the paternal warmth of an adoptive father. More than that, whoever takes up the mantle needs enough charisma to make audiences forget how his character picks out a new orphan from the pound every ten years or so and forces them to jump off buildings. The line of demarcation between "kid sidekick" and "child soldier" has always been arguable. Audiences need someone to dangle a keyring made out of charm and say "look over here!" with enough enthusiasm that they ignore the bulk order of child-size gauze in the corner.
The cynical answer to "Who should play Batman?" is "George Clooney." The even more cynical answer is "Whichever actor hasn't played him yet, there can't be that many left." The real, bottom-of-my-heart solution is Diedrich Bader. Yes, really. No, you shut up.
Check out Bader's work voicing the character for three seasons of the "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" animated series, or the "Harley Quinn" cartoon on HBO Max, and then hold it up against the "Wayne Family Adventures" webcomic created by CRC Payne and Rhett Bloom. He'd be perfect. Robert Pattinson can keep brooding in his Elseworlds corner. Give us a Batman who stops at the Wawa on the way back to the Batcave because Robin is out of Go-gurt.
Speaking of Robin, uh, I don't know. That could go any number of ways. Our last three big-screen Boys Wonder were dead, dumb, and Chris O'Donnell, respectively. Damian Wayne is a complicated character that you want to do right by, and I don't, you know, follow a ton of kid actors. Just gonna pull a name out of nowhere.
Paul Giamatti. Short shorts, little cape, the whole shebang. Final answer.
