Sparks fly between Caped Crusader and Catwoman in latest The Batman trailer

Robert Pattinson stars in the dual role of Gotham City's vigilante detective and his alter ego, reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne, in The Batman.

Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson), aka Batman, must grapple with a taunting serial killer and his family's potential links to long-standing corruption in Gotham City in the latest trailer for The Batman. But he's still got time for some heavily flirtatious fisticuffs with Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), which should delight "Bat/Cat" shippers everywhere. The studio has helpfully titled the trailer "The Bat and the Cat," lest anyone miss the intended focus.

As I've written previously, the original plan was to set the film within the DCEU, after the events of Justice League. But as Warner Bros. was rethinking the shared-universe model for its superhero films in favor of standalone films and franchises, Ben Affleck announced he was stepping down as director, and the studio replaced him with Matt Reeves. Affleck would eventually withdraw from the project altogether, following his divorce from Jennifer Garner and a stint in rehab for alcohol abuse.

Reeves said that the plot would follow a series of murders, revealing the history of corruption in Gotham and how Bruce's family is linked to that corruption. The classic bad guys-the Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman-are also in the early stages of their development into full-fledged villains. Reeves has cited Alfred Hitchcock as a major influence on the overall look and feel of his film, as well as Chinatown, The French Connection, and Taxi Driver.

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