Now that he’s officially retired from the role for a second time – unless the #RestoreTheSnyderVerseCrowd gets what it wants and hell freezes over – it’s time to big farewell to Ben Affleck’s Batman forever, and wonder about what might have been.
Having a two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker co-writing, producing, directing, and playing the title role in a standalone Dark Knight adventure is always going to be the one that got away for a number of fans, especially when Affleck was only just hitting his stride and getting to grips as the character.
On the plus side, he’s at least bowed out with a history-making first, even if nobody cares because it happened in The Flash. As has been pointed out since the catastrophic box office disaster since it landed on VOD after plummeting out of relevance in short order, the cowl sported by Affleck in the opening action sequence marks the first time a live-action Batman has had movable brows.
Sure, it’s a tiny little development, but it’s important nonetheless. After all, we’ve gone from Michael Keaton being unable to move his head in Tim Burton’s 1989 classic to individual parts of the headpiece having their own autonomy, even though there’s an argument to be made that digitizing so much of Affleck’s final set piece did more harm than good considering it looked like a PS2-era cutscene at times.
Alas, farewell Batfleck, how we hardly knew ye. The actor was a solid Bruce Wayne and a daunting Caped Crusader, who just happened to be unfortunate to get caught up in the DCU’s constant reshuffles.