Wonder Woman notwithstanding, the fledgling DC Extended Universe hasn’t really got off to the best of starts, has it?
Sure, the combined box office total of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, Suicide Squad and the recently-released (and critically panned) Justice League may be just shy of $3 billion, but those reviews and lowly audience scores haven’t been kind to Warner’s output thus far. And it shows.
Prompted by Justice League‘s recent failure, word is that the studio is now in the process of a major shake-up that will see a change of personnel at the top-end of its DC Films division. But it seems that overhaul isn’t exclusive to the back-end, as Ben Affleck is “highly unlikely” to reprise as Gotham’s Dark Knight for The Batman. Or at least, that’s what we’ve been told numerous times now over the past few weeks.
And though the ‘will he, won’t he?’ saga surrounding the actor and his future as the Caped Crusader – or lack thereof – has kept DC fans on tenterhooks for months and will continue to do so for the next little while, Affleck has now spoken up on the matter in a recent interview with Daily Sabah. Though he wouldn’t give a straight answer on whether or not he’ll suit up as Batman again, he did mention that he’s still into the idea of helming a film featuring the iconic hero.
“For me, it’s interesting, and I always evaluate this stuff on the merit of the material. I want to direct a Batman movie, and I never got a script that I was happy with, so they are starting over and writing another script.
And right now, I think a lot of different possibilities I think for the way the DC Universe could go, and I will just follow my interests in pursing that. And I know that I love working with this group of people, and it was a real joy for me to make this movie.”
Of course, at this point, it seems highly unlikely that Ben will ever get to direct a Batman flick. Matt Reeves is already in charge of the character’s upcoming standalone outing and if Affleck’s on his way out of the DCEU – which it looks like he is – we can’t imagine that he’ll return at any point to get behind the camera for a future pic in the franchise.
That’s just our thoughts, though, and until we hear something concrete from Warner Bros., all we can tell you with absolute certainty is that filming on The Batman will commence mid-way through 2018. Surely (read: hopefully) by then we’ll have a better understanding of the Matt Reeves spinoff and, more importantly, who its titular star will be.