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There are a few things that remain constants in the modern-day Internet: a new adorable animal to obsess over, a new meme that takes a bit of context to really understand, and chatter around Batman. There’s the endless conversation about who should play him onscreen next, particularly in the new DC Universe.
In recent days, the Internet has latched on to a new Batman candidate: Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette star Paul Anthony Kelly. Kelly, who began his career as a model, is relatively new to the world of acting. His only other credit is The Venery of Samantha Bird, a TV series co-starring Katharine Langford and Finn Jones that was scrapped at Starz amid the 2023 Hollywood strikes. But if the hype around Love Story and his performance as Kennedy is any indication, an ever-growing number of DC fans think he has the chops to play the role.
Kelly is far from the first actor to become a popular DCU Batman fancast: a subset of fans have been hell-bent on seeing The Housemaid star Brandon Skelnar in the role since before the DCU was even officially a thing, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds star Ethan Peck and Masters of the Air‘s Nate Mann have also been popular picks, and Wicked‘s Jonathan Bailey has even been asked about the possibility in interviews.
Kelly probably won’t even be the last actor to be unofficially thrown into the conversation, with development still underway on the franchise’s planned Batman movie, The Brave and the Bold. Reports indicated earlier his year that screenwriter Christina Hodson, whose credits include Birds of Prey and Bumblebee, is working on the script. And DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn recently hinted that The Brave and the Bold won’t be released “in the same year” as Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II, which is currently set to be released in the fall of 2027.
Paul Anthony Kelly for Batman?!
Still, the fan conversation around Kelly possibly playing Batman has felt… different. It helps that the aesthetic and tone of Love Story has been giving viewers major Bruce Wayne vibes, whether he’s flirting with Sarah Pidgeon’s Carolyn Bessette, yearning while standing in the rain, or simply looking suave in a suit. There are no shortage of fan edits using footage from the show or photos of his modeling career to illustrate the similarities — and at times, he does look like shockingly like Bruce does in the comics. (I, personally, absolutely see the resemblance to how legendary artist Neal Adams drew Bruce in the ’70s.)
But beyond the aesthetics, there are aspects of Kelly’s energy that seem to be resonating with fans. Look no further than the comments on @jaysoromantic’s recent viral TikTok about the fancast, with user @kimdeans2 arguing that: “There is a kindness in his eyes that a lot of Batman actors don’t have… Paul has sad and kind eyes that would collect people broken like him.”
Another comment from user @galacticcowpoke argues that Kelly fits perfectly alongside David Corenswet’s Superman, saying: “What we need is a Bruce and a Clark that look like they could switch roles and I’d be fine with them being either one. And that’s exactly what this one is.” (If you haven’t already, go read 2017’s Batman #37, an issue where the pair do exactly just that.)
With The Brave and the Bold still a ways away, time will only tell if Kelly even ends up in the conversation to play the Caped Crusader. That being said, the years of people fancasting Corenswet for the role proves that nothing is out of the realm of possibility, and it would be poetic for both Superman and Batman to have gotten their start on Ryan Murphy-produced projects, with Corenswet previously appearing in The Politican and Hollywood. Either way, I love that the Kelly fancast has helped remind people of some less-talked-about sides of Bruce Wayne: the playboy, the yearner, and the man who would feel compelled to take an entire family worth of sidekicks under his wing.
(featured image: TheStewartofNY/FilmMagic)
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Jenna Anderson
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