Director Christopher Nolan said he once considered a couple of his Oppenheimer cast members for a very different role – Batman.
Josh Hartnett was one, but didn’t end up screen-testing for the role. “It never got that far,” Nolan said on Thursday’s episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast.
The role eventually went to Christian Bale for 2005’s Batman Begins. Still, Nolan was impressed with Hartnett. He recalled him being “a young actor whose work I was very interested in, and I had an initial conversation with him.” Hartnett was focused on something Nolan’s brother, Jonathan, was working on as a co-screenwriter. “He had read my brother’s script for The Prestige at the time, and was more interested in getting involved with that,” Nolan said of the 2006 thriller.
Another Oppenheimer star was also considered for the Batman role. Cillian Murphy, a longtime collaborator of Nolan’s, was similarly interested for the role of Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins.
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