Christian Bale gives his seal of approval for Robert Pattinson playing Batman

Christian Bale has said that he's very much up for seeing Robert Pattinson take over from him as the Dark Knight.

Bale was Bruce Wayne for three movies, Christopher Nolan's celebrated trilogy, before Ben Affleck took over for the DCEU movies a few years later.

Now that Affleck has returned the cowl, it will be Pattinson who will play Batman next, in Matt Reeves' forthcoming The Batman.

A full-bearded Bale told Variety: “Good choice! He’s interesting.”

Asked whether he had any advice for the former Twilight star, Bale added (strangely): “Oh, same as Ben (Affleck), just be able to pee by yourself. You don’t feel like a superhero when you aren’t able to p**s by yourself.”

This will likely refer to the general constrictive nature of the Batman suit, but it's still not hugely helpful.

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Pattinson recently talked about trying on the iconic cape and cowl for the first time while auditioning for the role.

“It’s maybe the craziest thing I’ve ever done in terms of movie stuff,” Pattinson told Variety.

“I put it on. I remember saying to Matt, ‘It does feel quite transformative!’ He was like, ‘I would hope it does! You’re literally in the Batsuit.’”

“You do feel very powerful immediately. And it’s pretty astonishing, something that is incredibly difficult to get into, so the ritual of getting into it is pretty humiliating. You’ve got five people trying to shove you into something. Once you’ve got it on, it’s like, ‘Yeah, I feel strong, I feel tough, even though I had to have someone squeezing my butt cheeks into the legs.’”

“You’re trying to think of the way to balance, how to bring something new to it and not want to scare people off,” Pattinson adds. “And work in the confines of the costume.”

Pattinson has spent several pretty successful years breaking free of his teen idol image, recently starring in a glut of quality movies.

His appearances in the movies Good Time and sci-fi horror High Life both saw Pattinson's performances come in for high praise.

He's soon set to appear as a boozy lighthouse keeper in the forthcoming The Lighthouse with Willem Dafoe, helmed by The Witch director Robert Eggers.

Already receiving rave reviews after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, it's due for release in the UK on 17 January, 2020.