When it was first announced that Ben Affleck was ending his self-imposed retirement to return as the DCEU’s Batman for The Flash, speculation almost instantly turned towards the actor sticking around for a lot longer to finally direct the solo outing he’d spent years developing, and it only intensified further when he was confirmed to be suiting up for Zack Snyder’s Justice League reshoots.
By the time Barry Allen’s film arrives in November 2022, nobody will have played the Dark Knight in live-action more times than Affleck, but he’ll still be the only one that’s never headlined a movie of his own. Joker proved that standalone DC adaptations can not only work but reap huge critical and commercial rewards, while Matt Reeves’ confirmation that The Batman exists outwith the main DCEU timeline means that the two-time Academy Award winner is still the franchise’s canonical Caped Crusader.
Joe Manganiello was cast to play Deathstroke opposite Affleck’s grizzled hero, and he too will return to the fold in the Snyder Cut. In fact, the actor’s been talking up the abandoned take on The Batman to anyone who’ll listen recently and now, Snyder has also lent his support to the idea, admitting that he’d love to see what the director of Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo could do with a comic book blockbuster.
“Look, I would love for Ben to make that Deathstroke movie. That would be amazing. I don’t know that he’s going to, or that the studio want him to, but I would love for him to do it. That would be so cool. And Joe is amazing.”
This time last year, the idea of Ben Affleck finally getting around to directing The Batman would have seemed impossible, but we live in a world where the Snyder Cut exists and is arriving in just a couple of months, Jared Leto is back as the Joker and even Michael Keaton is reprising his role as Bruce Wayne, so nothing can be completely ruled out at this stage.
