Netflix's New R-Rated Movie With Two Batmans Deserves Its Global Streaming Success

Published Sep 2, 2026, 5:04 PM EDT Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics." Netflix's new R-rated movie features two Batman actors, and it deserves its global streaming success for a few factors. Netflix's movie lineup for 2026 has been playing well for the streaming service so far. If you look at the list of Netflix's most-watched movies of all time, there is now a release from this year at 10th, a sci-fi thriller. That movie is Alan Ritchson's War Machine, with the Reacher star having since signed a Netflix movie deal that will see him appear in many other projects for the streamer, including a War Machine sequel. Near the top of that select list, at 3rd, is Taron Egerton's Carry-On, an action thriller. This just goes to show the genre's power on Netflix. In 2026, Egerton starred in Apex, a survival thriller that went on to top Netflix's global Top 10 Movies chart. When it comes to Netflix's most-watched TV shows, there are multiple thrillers. Adolescence ranks the highest, at 2nd, with the new 2026 release I Will Find You currently at 6th and rising. This spectacular thriller trend for Netflix has now continued with its latest global hit. The Whisper Man is currently Netflix's most-watched TV show worldwide, according to FlixPatrol. At the time of writing, The Whisper Man is trending on Netflix in 93 countries, with the streaming service's new R-rated thriller being Netflix's most-watched movie in 68 nations, including the United States. The Whisper Man achieved that with two Batmans in its cast, and it deserves all the streaming success. The Whisper Man's Cast Features Two Batman Actors Robert De Niro is one of Hollywood's biggest icons, and the fact that The Whisper Man features his return to the crime thriller genre, which he knows so well with iconic movies like Heat and The Godfather Part II, has become perhaps the biggest story when it comes to The Whisper Man's cast. However, Netflix's new R-rated crime thriller has a star-studded cast that expands beyond De Niro, with names like Adam Scott, who has become one of the biggest stars on streaming through Apple TV's Severance, and Michelle Monaghan, who starred in the latest season of the HBO hit The White Lotus. Interestingly, The Whisper Man's cast also includes two Batman actors. One of them is responsible for Batman becoming a live-action icon in theaters, as Michael Keaton, who most recently played DC's Dark Knight in 2023's The Flash, gives life to Frank Carter in The Whisper Man. The other Batman star in the cast of the new Netflix movie is Hamish Linklater, who voices Bruce Wayne in Prime Video's animated Batman: Caped Crusader, whose season 2 dropped recently, on July 31. Batman is an inherently dark character known for his role in gritty crime stories. This makes The Whisper Man's cast perfect for its genre. De Niro was also in Batman's world, even if he never played or voiced Bruce Wayne in a DC project, as he played the talk show host Murray Franklin in 2019's Joker, where he was brutally gunned down by Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck after he assumed the Joker persona on live TV. Why The Whisper Man Deserves Its Streaming Success Netflix Beyond the fact that it boasts a talented ensemble featuring two Batman actors, The Whisper Man deserves its global streaming success because it infuses a sense of dread that permeates the entire narrative with gloomy cinematography and a high-stakes story with plenty of emotional moments and dynamics. Seeing De Niro play a different kind of character, an estranged father who is trying desperately to save his grandson to make up for the pain he brought to his family, and thus comes out of retirement as a detective, to the ones he gave life to in past crime thrillers is uniquely exciting. The Whisper Man also plays out like one of Netflix's hit crime thriller series one can't help but binge, in that its pacing is not slowed down as the narrative shifts between different timelines and perspectives to paint viewers a full picture of the case in question. By the end of its runtime, The Whisper Man successfully establishes itself as a gripping crime thriller. Release Date August 28, 2026 Runtime 106 minutes Director James Ashcroft Cast Writers Ben Jacoby, Chase Palmer, Alex North Producers Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Michael Disco, Angela Russo-Otstot, Mike LaRocca