Ben Affleck Playing Batman Again After The Flash?
Ben Affleck might continue playing the role of The Caped Crusader after The Flash movie, but we won't know until it stops getting delayed.
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We have known for a while now that Ben Affleck is going to return to the role of the Caped Crusader for the upcoming The Flash movie. However, there has always been the presumption that this would be the Good Will Hunting’s star last turn as Batman, especially considering that he has made no secret of his dislike of the role (and most particularly, the experience of filming Justice League). But now word is starting to spread that Affleck might not quite be done with the mantle of the Bat, and may play billionaire playboy/sad drunk Bruce Wayne after The Flash. We are going by this Tweet from Twitter user @GraceRandolph so far, which also alludes to the idea that Affleck’s version of Batman might die in the film. Or does he? Here’s the Tweet:
To be fair, Ben Affleck-variant Batman is not what people are most excited about for The Flash. We are of course speaking of Ezra Miller, the young people’s favorite! Sorry, Ezra, we kid, because everyone is actually waiting with bated breath for Michael Keaton to show up as Batman once again. This will be Keaton’s first time playing Batman in 30 years, since leaving the role after Tim Burton’s controversial Batman Returns. At the time, Keaton was quite clear that he was not interested in continuing to play the character with Burton (who was moving on to better/weirder things with the one-two punch of Ed Wood and Mars Attack!). The role was filled with Val Kilmer for Batman Forever, then George Clooney for Batman & Robin, then a big gap of time and a hard reboot for Christian Bale’s acclaimed turn. Now we currently exist with Robert Pattinson as Batman-Prime (we are basing that on box office numbers).
So how many Batmans (Batmen?) does Warner Bros plan to keep around, post-The Flash? Director Matt Reeves will no doubt get a sequel to his recent The Batman (possibly starring a certain murderous clown), given the tremendous commercial and critical success it has received. The movie was originally intended to star and be directed by Ben Affleck, but apparently plans for that fell through. Warner Bros essentially scrapped the whole thing and went with Reeves, which has turned out to be a good call, but it still remains up in the air how long Batfleck will be sticking around for.
Of course, all of this is conjecture at the moment. Ben Affleck has pretty strongly indicated he is eager to be done with the role, but there was a time when he said he would never play a superhero again after the experience of 2003’s Daredevil. After the debacle of the Zack Snyder-led attempt at a DCEU shared universe to directly compete with the MCU, Warner Bros seems to be throwing properties around without a care to cohesion or continuity as long as it works. However, it does seem to be working pretty well for them, with The Batman making approximately the gross of a small nation and Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad getting some of their highest critical praise. The Flash just keeps on getting delayed, so we will just have to wait and see.
