The Batman’s Kurt Cobain Imagery Was There From The Beginning

Once “The Batman” arrived in March 2022, it became clear just how central Kurt Cobain was to Matt Reeves’ vision. Not only does Nirvana’s “Something In The Way” appear throughout “The Batman,” sending the song to the top of the charts some 30 years after it was first released, but Robert Pattinson’s forlorn, brooding Bruce Wayne also seemed to embody the spirit of Cobain — especially as depicted in Gus Van Sant’s dramatized version of his later life, “Last Days.”

Prior to the film’s release, Reeves revealed how that was all by design, telling Empire:

“When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana’s ‘Something In The Way’ … That’s when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we’ve seen before, there’s another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse.”

It seems that revelation came pretty early in the writing process. Speaking to Variety, Robert Pattinson explained how, prior to being cast, he’d been checking in with producer Dylan Clark about the status of a new Batman movie, and was pleasantly surprised when he was asked to meet with Reeves before even seeing a script. As the actor recalled:

“[Reeves] was just so lovely and showed me some of the art. There was incredible artwork already done for it, how he’s envisioning Gotham. He had a really interesting take. It was Kurt Cobain, Nirvana references, which as soon as he said it, I’m like, “Oh! Okay.” That’s definitely a different angle on Bruce than we’ve ever really seen before. He’s just an incredibly kind, sensitive, articulate person and it just seemed like the kind of person I want to work with.”