Rumors relating to The Batman and Ben Affleck’s potential role in it have been coming in thick and fast as of late.
Last time he suited up as Gotham’s Dark Knight, the box office numbers were… underwhelming, to say the least. Indeed, Justice League was heavily criticized for its overstuffed plot and substandard CGI, leading to rumors that, like Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck is set to make his exit from the DC franchise.
And while we have no confirmation on the matter one way or another just yet, a whole bunch of actors have been linked to the role of the Caped Crusader in recent weeks. Ryan Gosling, Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) and even Oscar Isaac of Star Wars fame are just a few of the names being thrown around, while Mad Men‘s Jon Hamm has already said that he’d love to be our next Batman. But what if the part goes to someone else entirely? Someone that no one’s expecting to see suit up as the Dark Knight?
Speaking on a recent episode of his Fatman Beyond podcast, Kevin Smith put forth a few picks for who he’d like to see replace Ben Affleck. The usual suspects – Hamm, Gosling and even Jake Gyllenhaal – were all brought up, but what was particularly surprising was when the filmmaker threw Thor star Chris Hemsworth into the ring.
“Nobody’s gonna be like, ‘Oh my God! You’ve discovered him,’ and sh-t, but you know who’d make an awesome f— Bruce Wayne and Batman? Chris Hemsworth. He f— made Thor work,” Smith said.
“Just took a character where — in the comics I was never a Thor guy — and he made me f— fall in love with that character. And it was not right away. I think it was Avengers where I started to go, ‘this guy’s f— funny.’ Once they stopped making him be old Thor… I like this version, where he’s self aware and he can play into his charm and be funny.”
Hemsworth is a surprising, if unrealistic pick for the next Caped Crusader. I mean, Smith makes some good points, and the actor’s Marvel contract is now up, but we can’t really see this happening. We could be wrong, but it’s likely that after so long of being tied down to one major superhero franchise, Hemsworth won’t want to hop into another one right away. After all, he’s probably got tons of other projects lined up that he’s been waiting to make but hasn’t been able to get around to doing due to his Marvel commitments.
Beyond that, Hemsworth has actually said a few times now that he’d be open to coming back as Thor for a possible fourth and final solo movie for the God of Thunder. There’s no word on if that’s even on the table at this point, but with Matt Reeves looking to cast his new Dark Knight pretty soon (assuming Affleck really is leaving), ahead of The Batman‘s mid-2019 start, it’s likely that Smith won’t get his wish here.
