Ben Affleck has had an interesting relationship with Batman ever since he was first cast as the Dark Knight in August 2013. There was a huge wave of backlash directed towards the decision based entirely on the fact that he was Ben Affleck, but a lot of fans ended up eating their words when he made his onscreen debut in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, where his veteran Caped Crusader was one of the undoubted highlights.
Things weren’t quite so rosy on Justice League, though, and watching the theatrical edition you can see how painfully uninterested the actor is at points, which wasn’t surprising when Zack Snyder had been the driving force behind his decision to sign on in the first place. Then there was the saga of The Batman, which at one stage the two-time Academy Award winner was set to star in, co-write, direct and executive produce, but he ended up retiring the cape and cowl altogether for personal reasons.
However, Batfleck is set to to return in a big way with the 48 year-old one of the few names brought back for Snyder’s recent reshoots, while he’s also lending support as the mentor and father figure to Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen in The Flash. Of course, there’ve been no shortage of rumors surrounding his involvement after that, but as of yet, Big Ben hasn’t officially committed his future to the DCEU.
In a recent interview, though, Affleck reflected on his time as Batman, and while he admitted that his kids were the reason he agreed to play another superhero over a decade after Daredevil, he also couldn’t resist taking a shot at Justice League.
“I did Batman because I wanted to do it for my kids. I wanted to do something that my son would dig. I mean, my kids didn’t see Argo. Zack wanted to do a version of the Frank Miller Dark Knight graphic novel series, which is a really good version of that. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons why things go the way they do in the movie business, and just because your face is on the poster doesn’t mean that you’re dictating all of those things, and even if you were, that they would go well. I wore the suit to my son’s birthday party, which was worth every moment of suffering on Justice League.”
Ben Affleck certainly has the potential to go down as one of the all-time great versions of Batman, he just hasn’t been given a real chance to show it. And though whether or not that solo movie ever ends up happening is still up for debate, the fans would surely love to see it.
