After The Odyssey, I Need to See Robert Pattinson In Way More Villain Roles
There’s a certain type of actor in Hollywood that directors and casting directors never really seem to know what to do with. Why? Because they’re too famous to be considered a fresh discovery, but also too unconventional to follow the expected path of a traditional movie star. And maybe not everyone will agree with me on this, but Robert Pattinson spent a good portion of his career in that exact space. For a lot of people, he still is (and always will be) the face of Edward Cullen from Twilight. But honestly, if you look at his filmography today and still see him only through that role, you’re simply ignoring one of the most interesting career transformations of the last few decades.
He showed up in Harry Potter, exploded with Twilight, and right after that, he had every reason to take the safest route possible: big romances, handsome leading men, and roles designed to maintain his movie star image. Instead, he spent years deliberately picking projects that challenged those expectations (especially because of the stigma that followed him after the vampire saga), which is exactly what makes his career so fascinating. And now, after years of proving he could play strange, vulnerable, and unpredictable characters, The Odyssey finally feels like the moment where one of Pattinson’s greatest strengths can really be explored: playing villains.
Antinous In The Odyssey Proved Robert Pattinson Needs More Villain Roles
Before The Odyssey, Pattinson had already played a few antagonists, like Preston in The Devil All the Time and the Dauphin in The King, or morally questionable characters like Connie in Good Time and Eric in Cosmopolis. But it was The Odyssey that made me realize he has a quality that’s surprisingly rare in actors who pull it off well: the ability to play a threatening character without turning every scene into an obvious display of evil. Antinous is one of Penelope’s (Anne Hathaway) suitors while Odysseus (Matt Damon) is away after the Trojan War, and he’s calculating, arrogant, and violent. Yet in Christopher Nolan’s film, Pattinson makes him feel truly manipulative and quietly menacing without ever overplaying the role.
During an Entertainment Weekly interview with the entire cast, Tom Holland, who plays Telemachus, actually touched on this when talking about Pattinson. The conflict between their characters is one of the story’s central dynamics, and Holland admitted he immediately felt more relaxed when he found out Pattinson had been cast as the antagonist:
“Rob and I have made three movies together now, all very different. (…) I’ve always felt like I’ve left the set a better actor because he raises the stakes of every scene,” he said. “The friction between our characters is so important for my entire journey. I was really nervous about trying to make sure that that felt authentic and scary enough for my character to make this desperate decision to go on this journey. I knew when I found out that you were playing Antinous that I could relax because you’re so good at being a d*ckhead.”
And this is exactly the kind of role that suits him. Pattinson doesn’t have a naturally intimidating presence. He doesn’t walk into a scene looking like an obvious threat, and that’s why it works so well when his characters reveal a darker side. There’s something much more compelling about a character who seems polite, charming, or even likable before showing their true intentions. These days, especially in franchises, movies often reduce villains to a very specific narrative function: creating an obstacle for the protagonist to overcome. But the best villains are the ones who make you think about them more than the heroes — not because of the script alone, but because of a performance that completely steals the spotlight.
Pattinson has exactly that kind of screen presence in The Odyssey, and I’d love to see him keep exploring it in future projects. He’s versatile, and anyone who has followed his career already knows that. But I honestly think it would be a smart move for him to lean into villain roles for a while (temporarily, of course, because nobody wants to be typecast forever). It also feels like something that naturally fits him, considering he has openly said he’s drawn to unconventional, odd, difficult characters that challenge him. His goal is always to find something he has no idea how to approach. “I find it fascinating when people make bad decisions. The humour and the befuddlement,” he said in an interview with The Guardian. So imagine him as a truly bizarre villain.
In my opinion, that’s why Pattinson ended up becoming a far more interesting actor than many people ever expected.
What to Expect From His Career Going Forward
At this point, one thing has become pretty clear: Pattinson is drawn to unusual characters, whether they’re antagonists or not. And Batman is actually a great example of that. When he was first announced as Bruce Wayne, a lot of people questioned whether he could carry such an iconic character. But his version ended up winning over so many people because it wasn’t trying to be the definitive Batman; it was a quieter, more obsessive, more uncomfortable interpretation of someone who was still figuring out what it meant to become a symbol. The character wasn’t interesting because he was perfect — he was interesting because he was broken.
So, knowing all of that, and especially after seeing what he did in The Odyssey, is there a chance we’ll get something similar anytime soon? Thankfully for me (and for every Pattinson fan who feels the same way), the answer is yes. Dune: Part Three is on the way, with what I’d argue could be the beginning of the most dangerous phase of his career. Why? Because the saga Denis Villeneuve chose to adapt has never been about purely heroic protagonists or simple villains. Its characters are always wrapped up in manipulation, politics, and power struggles, which is exactly the kind of world where Pattinson tends to thrive. But more importantly, he’ll be playing Scytale, a character that’s actually worth comparing to Antinous just to get an idea of what’s coming.
The antagonist in The Odyssey tries to take Odysseus’ place in Ithaca, while Scytale is part of a conspiracy to overthrow Paul Atreides. One is the main human antagonist of Odysseus during the final stretch of The Odyssey, while the other is one of the main enemies in Dune Messiah. So far, so good, right? But when I say this new role is “dangerous,” I mean Scytale is a far more complex character than Antinous. He’s a Face Dancer of the Bene Tleilax, a master of disguise, psychological manipulation, and elaborate conspiracies. His greatest weapon isn’t intimidation — it’s making other people do exactly what he wants. He operates through layers upon layers of schemes and represents a much greater intellectual threat than a physical one. In other words, if Antinous was just a taste of what Pattinson can do as an antagonist, Scytale could be the role that truly cements this new phase.
At the same time, there’s another project arriving this year that reinforces my point: Primetime. Pattinson isn’t playing a villain here, but the movie still strengthens this argument because it places his character, Chris Hansen, at the center of a story that questions his methods and explores the line between justice, entertainment, and ethics. He’s not an antagonist, but he’s far from a hero, either. It’s yet another example of the actor gravitating toward morally ambiguous characters, and it makes the idea of seeing him embrace more villain roles feel even more natural.
At the end of the day, I’m not saying I want Pattinson to abandon leading roles or spend the rest of his career collecting villains. What The Odyssey made clear to me is that I still don’t think Hollywood has given him enough opportunities to show everything he can do playing a bad guy. If Dune: Part Three gives Scytale even half the depth the character has in the books, and Pattinson delivers a performance on the level of Antinous (or even better), we could be looking at the beginning of the most fascinating phase of his career. And I genuinely want to see that happen. Maybe then, even more villain roles will start finding their way to him.
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