Ever since the Snyder Cut of Justice League was officially announced, there’s been renewed speculation about Ben Affleck potentially returning to the DCEU to play Batman once more. Even though the Dark Knight is in the midst of being rebooted yet again with Robert Pattinson under the cape and cowl, the fact that The Batman won’t be considered canon and Michael Keaton is poised to reprise the role of Bruce Wayne for the first time in nearly 30 years indicates that Warner Bros. have no issues with having multiple versions of the same character existing at once.
Meanwhile, WB’s owners AT&T have hardly shied away from the rumors that they still want Affleck to make his version of The Batman, which would have seen him go up against Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke, the DCEU’s forgotten villain who was originally set to get his own solo movie directed by The Raid’s Gareth Evans, but instead saw his entire tenure in the franchise reduced to a post-credits cameo.
Having seen that their approach to the Snyder Cut eventually paid massive dividends, fans are now trying their luck at campaigning for Affleck’s Caped Crusader to return, and there’ve even been reports that an announcement could be imminent. The idea of the critically-acclaimed director of The Town and Argo helming a grounded and gritty superhero movie focused on a grizzled veteran Batman remains a huge missed opportunity, and now some new fan art from Saarukan Suhanthan imagines him going up against Manganiello’s Deathstroke, which you can check out below.
Given the recent explosion of news surrounding the DCEU that firmly establishes that the multiverse is set to be their new preferred method of storytelling, the return of Ben Affleck’s Batman is looking a whole lot more likely than it’s ever been since he originally stepped away from the role, and might even be made official in a matter of weeks. Watch this space.
