Jensen Ackles weighs in on Batman casting: ‘I’ll cross ’em!’
With the actor set to reprise his The Boys anti-hero Soldier Boy next year, Jensen Ackles has revealed he is open to playing Batman.
Jensen Ackles is open to the idea of playing Batman.
DC head James Gunn is currently looking for the next actor to portray the Dark Knight in the DC Universe (DCU) and The Boys star, 47, has now said he would want to play Batman, but knows it would be “hard to carve out something truly unique” if he were to take on the role.
When Collider asked Ackles if he would be open to playing Batman, he said: “Oh, man. I don’t know. It would be hard to carve out something truly unique amongst all of the performances as Batman.
“I would probably have to lean heavily on Gunn and whoever’s directing and whoever’s writing it, and get inspiration from the text.”
The Countdown actor added the pressure of playing the iconic superhero would weigh heavily on him, but would still consider portraying the Caped Crusader.
He said: “You talk about not wanting to fumble the football — that’s one that I would be nervous as hell to carry. But also proud. A certain feather in the cap. Anybody who gets to wear the cowl, they got something.”
When Collider said they’d keep their fingers crossed for him to play Batman, Ackles replied: "I’ll cross ’em, too. Just say the word!”
Batman is set to get his grand introduction in the DCU with The Brave and the Bold, though no actor is attached to the role yet.
DC already has an on-screen Dark Knight with Robert Pattinson’s The Batman, though the film and its 2027 sequel The Batman: Part II are Elseworlds projects and do not take place in the main DCU timeline.
The idea of folding Pattinson's Caped Crusader into the DCU and playing the character in The Brave and the Bold had been floated, but Gunn has since extinguished this theory.
During an interview with Variety, he said: “I wouldn’t rule anything out. He could show up in something else. But the actor doesn’t exist [yet].”
The Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker added that he and co-DC head Peter Safran haven’t had any “serious conversations” about bringing Pattinson’s Batman over to the DCU.
He said: “Have we ever talked about Robert Pattinson? Yeah. We’ve talked about all those things. But serious conversations? No.”
The Brave and the Bold is expected to focus on the father-son dynamic between Batman and his accomplice Robin and will be helmed by The Flash director Andy Muschietti.
While Gunn seems uncertain about Pattison’s DCU future, The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves hasn’t ruled out the possibility his Caped Crusader could transition over to the mainline DCU.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he said: “It really comes down to whether it makes sense.
“There was a story I wanted to tell. The epic crime saga. It's been important to me to play that out and James and Peter have been really great about that. They are letting us do that. "What the future brings, I can't really tell you. I have no idea.”
