This Forgotten 2025 Thriller Stars the Perfect Batman for James Gunn’s DC Era

2 hours ago 6

Published Feb 21, 2026, 7:01 PM EST

Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot.

Whoever is cast as Batman in James Gunn’s DCU will be a colossal win for one corner of the fanbase and a massive disappointment for countless others. Unlike Superman, whose shades of the timid journalist Clark Kent and the charismatic boy scout Kal-El/Superman are relatively basic, there are far more shades to a character like Batman and the Bruce Wayne mask he wears.

There are also far more unique iterations of Batman across all comic book-related media, and it’s undetermined which one the DCU’s Batman will emulate. Thanks to The Housemaid, though, it is easy to see why Brandon Sklenar’s name has endured so prominently in popular Batman fancasts, and anyone skeptical of his acting talent owes it to themselves to watch it.

Brandon Sklenar’s Housemaid Performance is Great

Brandon Sklenar has the physique that some Batman fans wished Robert Pattinson had in The Batman, and The Housemaid is proof that he can roll around in the darker, more eccentric corners of rage, which is perfectly applicable to a Batman archetype. For instance, Michael Keaton’s zany, reclusive Bruce.

Of course, if James Gunn’s DCU is hoping to depict Batman in the goofy, outlandish style of Adam West, it’d admittedly be a lot more difficult to imagine Brandon Sklenar believably achieving that based on his most recent performances. Still, The Housemaid has proven that his range is deceptively broad. In fact, while we’ve seen Brandon Sklenar embody the strong, silent, and heroic type in 1923, The Housemaid finally revealed that the actor can tap into an unhinged duality that is essential to many classic Batman iterations.

It Might as Well Be a DCU Batman Audition

Andrew making a pensive expression in The Housemaid

Fancasts don’t have the power to guarantee any actor a role, though what fans want and how popular an actor is are important factors to consider. That’s all a fancast is, after all: how an actor looks relative to the character they’re imagined to be portraying, as well as that actor’s perceived ability to portray the character faithfully.

Audiences saw Robert Pattinson in plenty of terrific performances before he was cast in The Batman, but his role as Edward Cullen in the Twilight franchise was still on everyone’s minds at the time. The same can’t be said for Brandon Sklenar, when most audiences likely haven’t seen him in anything other than 1923, It Ends with Us, Drop, or The Housemaid, and these were all performances from within the last four years.

Despite how handsome and strong-jawed Robert Pattinson is, his nihilistic drifter Bruce is hardly a classic look for the character. Plus, Brandon Sklenar certainly does naturally look like a cowboy rancher, and yet he’d likely look much more the part of a playboy billionaire socialite if he had a clean shave and dyed his hair dark, as Robert Pattinson also needed to do.

Love Story’s Paul Anthony Kelly is a brand-new name being tossed around as a popular Bruce fancast, while Foundation’s Lee Pace could be an exceptional pick for an experienced Batman with a whole Bat-family under his wing. If nothing else, the specificity and severity of these fancasts demonstrates how enormous a decision casting Batman will be for James Gunn’s DCU, and it is unlikely that everyone will be pleased with the actor, no matter who is chosen and why.