Timothée Chalamet Has Strong Feelings About The Internet Wanting Him To Play Batman

Call him by his name; call him Bruce Wayne. Fans want Timothée Chalamet to play Batman and finally, the Beautiful Boy star has an answer for whether he actually would sign up to don the Batsuit. Chalamet responded to the online campaign to cast him as Batman at a recent red carpet event, and his answer might surprise some fans.

Unfortunately, it seems Gotham City might have to keep searching for its new Caped Crusader — at least for now. When Chalamet spoke with Variety on the Beautiful Boy red carpet, he was asked about Twitter dream casting him as Batman. To be honest, he seemed rather surprised. “What? When? Who said that?” he asked only to be told "the internet." "Really?" Chalamet said with a huge smile on his face. After getting over his initial shock, he admitted he was a huge fan of the DC superhero. “The Dark Knight is one of my favorite films.”

It's true that Chalamet has been very forthcoming about his love for that movie. At the 2018 New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Chalamet said that he “left that theater [after seeing The Dark Knight] a changed man, and I’m serious about that,” adding that “Heath Ledger’s performance in that film was visceral and viral to me, and I now had the acting bug.”

That might be why Chalamet found it hard to imagine himself following in the footsteps of the big screen Batmans who came before him: Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck, who is reportedly done playing Batman.

Specifically, Bale, who Chalamet noted was a bit older than him when he started played Bruce Wayne in 2005's Batman Begins. "How old was he when he played Batman? ... He was like 38,” Chalamet, who is 22 years old, told Variety, making the case that he might be a little too young for the role. That said, Chalamet isn't too young to reprise Bale's role as Laurie in Greta Gerwig's upcoming remake of Little Women.

But age ain't nothin' but a number for Chalamet fans, who think his youth could allow for a new take on Batman. A fan on Twitter identified as @chalametgreta even thought a July post from Indiewire about how much celebrities like Chalamet love The Dark Knight was a hint at the direction a future movie might take.

The image for the piece was a split photo featuring Chalamet, Batman, and Phantom Thread director Paul Thomas Anderson. "OMG. I thought they were going to remake this," wrote @chalametgreta. "That would be perfect. Or they could start a new chapter." One that, honestly, sounds like it could be amazing.

That same fan also thought a "new chapter" for Batman could allow for the Call Me By Your Name reunion we didn't know we wanted. "Cast Timothée Chalamet as a young Batman and Armie Hammer as Alfred," @chalametgreta wrote.

The idea of Chalamet and Hammer teaming up for a Batman movie isn't exactly new. As Refinery29 pointed out earlier this year, the UK site Movie'n'co pitched the idea of them playing Batman and Robin in the future with their Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino at the helm. And honestly, they seemed down to do it. "That would be interesting," Hammer said. "That would be fun."

While Chalamet doesn't seem poised to become the next Batman just yet, when he was asked by Variety whether he'd ever play a superhero onscreen he only had one thing to say. "I want to work on... anything that's good," Chalamet, who auditioned to play Spiderman, responded, not entirely ruling out a superhero turn in the future. Maybe when he's a little older — you know, like 38.