Ben Affleck out, Jake Gyllenhaal in?
That’s the latest allegation from John Campea, who claims the current Caped Crusader will be relieved of his crimefighting duties soon after the launch of Justice League. His successor? Jake Gyllenhaal, who has allegedly been shortlisted to headline The Batman – and, by effect, a whole new trilogy – under the stewardship of Matt Reeves.
Gyllenhaal has long been rumored for the role of Gotham’s Dark Knight, having just missed out on Batman and Spider-Man in the past. Indeed, the Oscar-nominated actor has never once strayed into the world of costumed crusaders and superheroes – unless you’re counting the tour-de-force performance of Stronger, in which he played Boston Marathon bombing survivor, Jeff Bauman.
As for The Batman, evidence continues to mount that Matt Reeves is working to replace Ben Affleck in the title role, similar to how his page-one rewrite ostensibly removed Deathstroke from the Gotham-centric spinoff altogether. Thank heavens Joe Manganiello’s badass mercenary still has a future in the DC Extended Universe, as we learned during one of Justice League‘s two post-credits scenes.
Slade Wilson aside, Reeves evidently wants to shake things up in time for The Batman, and drafting in a new Bruce Wayne appears to be the director’s first port of call. He’ll need to do it soon, too, otherwise the spinoff risks losing its tentative start date (summer 2018, last we reported).
And assuming this new rumor is to be believed, Jake Gyllenhaal would make a fine candidate for the seemingly vacant role. The real question is when Warner Bros. will choose to announce to announce the alleged switcheroo. If The Batman is targeting a release in 2019, one would assume that the official press release will be dispatched sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, Justice League will finally swoop into theaters tomorrow, November 17th, and on the eve of release, Rotten Tomatoes has declared Zack Snyder’s to be ‘rotten’ at 40 percent – a far cry from Wonder Woman‘s historic 92 percent.
