Talking about the film’s protagonist, Joon Ho explained that he played with the character’s averageness. “Even in the original novel, Mickey is quite an average person. But I wanted to make him even more average, even lower class, more of a loser. So all these ideas for adapting the story came to me instantly. I was fascinated by Mickey, who is not a superhero, but this everyman going through this crazy journey.”

Exploring Robert Pattinson’s range as an actor

Robert is best known for his roles in Twilight, The Batman and more. Revealing why he wanted Pattinson to play a man who signs up to be an expendable, Bong Joon Ho shared, “I found this goofy side to him, and I had already known how incredible he is as an actor from films like The Lighthouse, The Batman, and especially Good Time by the Safdie brothers. I already knew he had a wide range. The question was, could this actor pull off Mickey? He would have to play two roles, Mickey 17 and 18, who are very different characters. Could one actor cover this wide spectrum? And he was really the actor that came to mind when I thought about who could play these two very different roles.” He added, “Rob also responded to our offer and said, ‘Yes’ very quickly. So, it was a very smooth and happy casting.”