Robert Pattinson Tests Positive for COVID, and The Batman Halts Filming Again. Maybe We Should Wait to Go Back to Normal Life?

I very much want to see The Batman, but I don’t want to see it at the risk of the cast and crew. And now, filming has been shut down because of a positive COVID-19 test from the set. And now, according to Vanity Fair, the positive case in question is Robert Pattinson himself.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, production shut down when Pattinson tested positive for the virus, and no one is sure how long filming will be halted, but what it does do is drive home the fact that maybe we should all just be waiting to jump back into everything.

Right now, we’re roughly 6 months into quarantine in the United States. That’s less than some other countries, but other countries have started to get their coronavirus outbreaks under control. The Batman was filming in the U.K., which has also had a particularly bad pandemic response, with the highest number of deaths in Europe, and among the highest in the world per capita—even more than the U.S. The problem isn’t really the overall case numbers in a place, though, but who contracts it and where they spread it to.

So, using The Batman set as an example, all it takes is one person testing positive, and then everyone in that specific place who came in contact with that person is at risk, along with anyone else they may come into contact with, and so on. And while I love movies and television, I think that right this second, jumping back into filming isn’t that safe!

Both Tom Holland and John Boyega have been sharing their on-set coronavirus looks (Holland’s was his Instagram stories of being tested, while Boyega showed himself on set with a mask on), and while they’re getting back to work and Hollywood is starting up again, that might be a bad idea no matter how many precautions are taken.

To be completely honest, our concern should be about the wellbeing of those on the set. From the actors and directors to the grips and the PAs and everyone involved, they’re all at risk on a set, and for what reason? So that we can be entertained? So the studio can get closer to putting out something they can make money on? Right now, I don’t even feel safe going to a theater, so they’re making these movies to … go to VOD? Or is it furthering the cycle of people then wanting to go to a theater when it’s not safe?

I truly think we should just wait, which—look, it sucks. I know that it sucks. Trust me, I’ve been quarantined at my mother’s house, far from home, for 6 months. I miss my bed. I get it, but we’re all so eager to run back outside that it’s going to make things that much worse this winter, until we get a vaccine.

I hope that the rest of the cast and crew of The Batman are safe, and I hope that Robert Pattinson is okay. (I am kind of in shock right now?) I just want everyone to be safe, and it’s really frightening how this virus is being treated right now. Currently, The Batman is set for an October 2021 release, but with this latest delay, who knows what’s to come for it and the rest of Hollywood?

(via The Hollywood Reporter, image: Warner Bros.)

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