Ben Affleck has tried put an end to the speculation that his days as Batman are over. Speaking at the Warner Bros. panel earlier this afternoon at San Diego’s Comic-Con, where a brand new Justice League trailer debuted, he explained:
“Batman is the coolest fucking part in any universe. I am so thrilled to do it. It is fucking amazing. After two films Kevin Tsujihara, Sue Kroll and Toby Emmerich have said ‘we want you to be our Batman’. I would be an ape on the ground for Matt Reeves. It’s a great time in the DC universe, and you can see why I am so excited to play Batman.”
Then again, these days of feverish guessing that his time in the cowl is rapidly coming to an end weren’t without good reason. Warner Bros. were reportedly dismayed with what Zack Snyder did with the character in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, not to mention the farrago of Affleck dramatically leaving the director’s seat for The Batman and near constant rumors that there are top to bottom problems with the film’s script. Beyond all that, there’s the straightforward fact that Ben Affleck is an Oscar winning director and maybe he’s got better things to do than spend his days squeezing into a rubber bat costume.
Then again, while Affleck sounds genuine in his love for playing Batman (and really, who wouldn’t want to be Batman on screen), he didn’t exactly go into specifics about his future in the role beyond the Reeves solo movie. After all, it’d have been easy for him to comprehensively deny the stories and confirm that he’s going to be Batman for the foreseeable future. If I were especially cynical, I might even suspect that this is a bit of damage control to ensure the upcoming Justice League isn’t overshadowed by behind-the-scenes drama.
What do you guys think, though? Are we to enjoy many years to come of Affleck as Batman, or is this merely a clever bit of misdirection from DC, Warner Bros. and Affleck? Let us know in the usual place!