Paul Walter Hauser on Sebastian Stan: “The World Is Appreciative of Him the Way I Am”

The I, Tonya co-stars have known each other since 2017 — and Hauser has been watching the career take off.

Paul Walter Hauser has been rooting for Sebastian Stan since the two worked together on I, Tonya.

In a personalized video recorded in January 2026, Hauser spoke at length and with obvious warmth about his former co-star — the talent he says he recognized immediately, and the run of roles that finally made everyone else notice.

“I love him to death. He’s so talented, too. I’ve always known how talented he was since we worked together, but then the stuff he’s taken on in the last couple of years — the, you know, Destroyer, and freaking Donald Trump in The Apprentice, and A Different Man, and now he’s gonna be doing this Matt Reeves Batman sequel — I’m just like, could not be happier that the world is appreciative of Sebastian Stan the way I am, and he’s getting these deserving opportunities.”

About that Batman sequel

Hauser’s excitement was well placed. Matt Reeves publicly confirmed Stan as part of The Batman: Part II in May 2026, announcing him alongside Scarlett Johansson, Brian Tyree Henry, and Sebastian Koch. The film is scheduled for February 18, 2028.

Which character Stan is playing hasn’t been announced. Fans initially assumed Harvey Dent, the district attorney who becomes Two-Face; industry reporter Jeff Sneider has since reported that Stan is playing Victor Zsasz instead, with Brian Tyree Henry as Dent. Neither Warner Bros. nor Reeves has confirmed any role, so both remain unsettled.

How they know each other

Hauser and Stan both appeared in Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya (2017) — Hauser as Shawn Eckhardt, Stan as Jeff Gillooly. It was their first project together, and it started a friendship Hauser still talks about with unmistakable affection.

The career he’s describing

Stan’s run in the years since:

• Destroyer (2018) — Karyn Kusama’s crime drama, opposite Nicole Kidman
• The Apprentice (2024) — as a young Donald Trump, in Ali Abbasi’s film
• A Different Man (2024) — Aaron Schimberg’s drama, and Stan’s most acclaimed leading role
• The Batman: Part II (2028) — role not yet announced

It’s an unusually deliberate filmography for someone who could have coasted on a Marvel contract, and Hauser’s point is that the industry took a while to catch up to it.

For Hauser, the Batman casting is simply the latest example of everyone else arriving at a conclusion he reached in 2017.

Disclosure: This clip comes from a personalized video recorded in January 2026. The quotation has been transcribed verbatim, with punctuation added for readability.

Sources: original video obtained by The Nerd Wire · The Hollywood Reporter · Variety