Right now, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll put on the cape and cowl in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. There’s only one thing we can be fairly confident about, though, and that’s that it won’t be Ben Affleck. Putting his well-publicized personal problems to the side, it was revealed earlier this week that Warner Bros. and Reeves are aiming to bring us a younger take on the character, with Big Ben himself also confirming that he won’t be returning for more.
Already, tons of names are being tossed around for who might replace him and according to Cosmic Book News, two of the top choices are actors who continue to come up in conversations regarding who’ll be our next Batman: Kit Harington and Armie Hammer. Both of them have found themselves linked to the role many times in the past and for the latter, he was actually going to play the Dark Knight at one point, back in Justice League Mortal, which was ultimately cancelled.
And as for Harington, well, with Game of Thrones quickly approaching its finale, there’s no question that he’ll soon be making in-roads into Hollywood as HBO brings the curtain down on their epic fantasy series. And it looks like a direct route to Bruce Wayne/Batman, arguably the biggest name in comic books, is what he has in mind.
Then again, we strongly suggest you take this news with a pinch of salt. As of yet, Warner Bros. has kept awfully quiet on who they have their eye on. Though with an announcement expected to arrive in May or June ahead of production starting in the fall, it shouldn’t be too much longer now before we learn of who our next Caped Crusader will be. And honestly, we wouldn’t be surprised if they settled on either of the men we mentioned above.
The Batman (or whatever it winds up being called) will drop into theaters on June 25th, 2021, before James Gunn’s Suicide Squad reboot follows suit in August of the same year, and as soon as we hear anything more about who Warner Bros. has in mind to replace Ben Affleck, we’ll be sure to let you know.