The Untold Story Of Robert Pattinson's 'Relationship' To Vlad The Impaler

Robert Pattinson playing Batman seemingly fulfills the destiny he accepted when got the role of Edward in Twilight. He went from playing a vampire to playing the Bat, as many have noted, and the two characters share some other similarities too, from a seemingly supernatural imperviousness to physical harm to a penchant for secretly peeping on women with no pants on. 

To a certain generation, though, Edward will always be his most iconic role, not a prologue to a varied film career. Being a vampire was his destiny, they'd say—and maybe they're right, if you put stock in bloodlines. It turns out that Pattinson is distantly related to Vlad the Impaler. Vlad the Impaler, of course, is widely considered the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula, though Stoker based the character on quite a few other people as well, including one annoying actor he happened to work with. 

So, that's a fun fact about Robert Pattinson. Except, that guy Vlad the Third lived over 500 years ago. A lot of people are related to him. We could pull up some rough math to estimate how many descendants he has. Except, there'd be no point, since Robert Pattinson isn't even a direct descendant. He's related to Vlad distantly, through a common relative: Prince William (as well as various other members of the British royal family). 

The reason we know this fact at all is that a genealogist at Ancestry.com dug it up, and then everyone latched onto it. We're not accusing Ancestry.com of lying or anything, but we're pretty sure the reason they shared this fact is that they want everyone unreasonably interested in the subject of ancestry. You too are probably distantly related to some famous figure from whichever continent your ancestors called home, and you can hire someone to find out whom.

If it feels like we just pulled a bait-and-switch on you, well, we're at least trying to be more upfront about it than Reuters, who broadcast the news using the headline "Twilight's Robert Pattinson related to Dracula." Which you might say isn't true at all, since Dracula is a fictional character. And yet it is true, technically. Vlad III was also known as Vlad Dracula, as he was the son of Vlad Dracul ("Vlad the Dragon"). 

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Top image: Summit Entertainment