Despite its constant appearance in the news cycle, we still don’t know very much about Zack Snyder’s upcoming Man of Steel sequel, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, especially when it comes to the version of the Caped Crusader that we’ll see on screen. No two Batman interpretations are completely alike, and from the sound of it, Ben Affleck will play a far different Batman than Christian Bale did in the Dark Knight trilogy.
We’ve already heard reports that this version is in his mid-40s, making him a bit older than previous versions of the character, and that he’s likely been operating in the shadows of Gotham for quite some time. This darker, more seasoned crime fighter will draw inspiration from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and even has a massive and powerful Batmobile to prove it.
Affleck recently sat down with The Sunday Times to discuss his role in David Fincher’s upcoming film Gone Girl, and when talking about how he relates to that film’s main character, he indulged in some details about how he relates to Zack Snyder’s version of Bruce Wayne as well.
The actor also explained that he and Bruce have a similar character flaw, in that they both share the same approach to dealing with anger and frustration. Apart from describing it as “a necessity, historically, in the tradition of these films,” the actor said:
“For me, anger is so deeply buried and contained that when it does kind of come out it comes out in stronger bursts. I tend to be respectful, polite, get along, put up with, put up with, put up with… then, when it finally emerges, it’s not something I have a ton of control over. I’m not gonna’ go into a Wolverine berserker rage, but I do have a, I do… I should sit down and say, ‘Listen, I just want to let you know what happened there was’t okay,’ instead of going, let it go, let it go, let it go… ‘Ah, that’s not a big deal,’ until finally you just pop!”
Batman’s struggle with anger issues is certainly nothing new to the character, but not necessarily something we’ve seen on film before. Previous actors, including Bale, have played a more controlled, reserved, and composed versions of the Dark Knight. Bale had a few angry moments (like when he interrogates the Joker, for example), but it never felt like Bruce Wayne had lost control of himself, and it could be argued that his anger was just “part of the act” of playing Batman to scare some criminals.
The Superman we saw in Man of Steel had a few anger issues himself, which resulted in a bit of property damage…so perhaps this Batman has something to get really angry about. We’ll see for sure when Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters on March 25th, 2016.
What do you think of Affleck’s comments? Are you ready for an angrier Batman on film? Let us know in the comments below.
