Ben Affleck Will Not Play Batman in The Batman—For Real This Time, We Swear
There has been a lot of talk about where the DCEU movies will go in the future, especially now that they’ve found success with Wonder Woman and Aquaman, but there’s still been a lot of talk about Batman—and not exactly because everyone has been clamoring for another outing for the caped crusader.
Ben Affleck’s original casting as Bruce Wayne/Batman for Batman v Superman drew a lot of ire, but for those who didn’t like the movie, I feel pretty comfortable guessing that Affleck was hardly on of its larger issues. However, as the DCEU tries to shake off its past and move forward with what’s working, it makes sense to bring in a new actor for a clean break, and that’s exactly what Matt Reeves’ The Batman will do.
A lot of information (comparatively) broke about the new Batman outing yesterday, including that it will focus more on the detective aspect of the character than past movies, and eventually, the other shoe that has dropped, and then been picked up again several times at this point, seemed to be dropped for good. Deadline reported that the movie would, indeed, live up to all the rumors and focus on a younger version of the character with a new actor, saying that Affleck “passes the torch” with the change.
In case you’re tempted to believe this is yet another rumor to add to the pile, Affleck himself retweeted the story, mentioning that he’s looking forward to seeing the movie himself, which is as close to an “official” confirmation as you can get without actually having one:
Excited for #TheBatman in Summer 2021 and to see @MattReevesLA vision come to life. https://t.co/GNgyJroMIO
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) January 31, 2019
Passing the torch also sounds a lot like Affleck is done with the character period, not just for the sake of The Batman’s time period, but this rumor mill has gone around so many times that I’m wary of saying anything for certain on that front. We still have no real idea what’s even happening with another Justice League installment, if one is even in the cards at all in the foreseeable future, though it seems extremely unlikely at this point that it would assemble the same team after the first movie’s performance, even if that just means new versions of some characters.
As for other possible DCEU appearances, Affleck’s Batman also popped up in Suicide Squad, but we now know that the sequel to that movie is also planned to feel more like a reboot, so there’s no reason to expect him to show up there, either. Maybe we can all finally get off the “Ben Affleck is Batman no more!” merry-go-round.
Whatever happens, I’m still just amazed he ever got to be Batman in the first place after the Mallrats “Buttman” title card. Truly, nothing in this world is impossible, friends. Dream big.
(via Pajiba, image: Warner Bros.)
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