No offense to Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson, who by all accounts are making a great movie if the first trailer is any indication, but the more we keep hearing about Ben Affleck’s take on The Batman, the more we wish he’d been able to bring it to fruition.
The actor’s portrayal of a grizzled, middle-aged Dark Knight that’s long since lost all sense of hope and optimism is unique in the pantheon of live-action adaptations, and his performances in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League were well received by fans and critics alike.
Then there are his credentials as a writer and director, with Affleck having won an Academy Award for scripting Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon and landed a Golden Globe for helming Argo, which gave him his second Oscar after he also produced the Best Picture winner. And that’s without even mentioning the plot details we’ve heard, which have mostly come from Joe Manganiello.
After Lex Luthor reveals Bruce Wayne’s double life to Deathstroke, the assassin would have headed to Gotham and proceeded to tear the billionaire’s world apart from the inside out, moving through the story like a horror movie villain in a plot that he described as a cross between David Fincher’s The Game and the Arkham Origins video game, with Batgirl even set to show up in the third act.
Of course, the success of Justice League has renewed calls for Affleck’s solo Batman movie to be given the green light, with tipster Mikey Sutton reporting that Warner Bros. and HBO Max’s parent company AT&T wants to see the project happen now more than ever. We’re still a long way away from the SnyderVerse saga being resolved, though, but fingers crossed it’ll materialize eventually in some form.
