Ben Affleck Comments on Returning as Batman:
“There was a time above… a time before. There were perfect things… diamond absolutes. How things fall, things on Earth. And what falls… is fallen.”
The opening lines of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice perfectly describe the Batman situation of Ben Affleck. We are getting a story of The Batman that no one actually asked for. The fans were pretty hyped and optimistic to see Ben Affleck deliver a solo Batman story, but things in his personal life added a lot of pressure upon him. The guy had a good script but alcoholism took over him. Now we’re getting Matt Reeves’ The Batman which seems to be taking things back to the basics. We’re interested in seeing what Reeves is coming up with, but we’re surely going to miss Batfleck.
Upon being asked if he was ever going to return as Batman, Affleck joked that he might return as the caped detective in 20 years or so. Affleck’s next film is The Way Back and it kind of tells a similar story to what has happened in his personal life in the last 2-3 years. Affleck said that he has “kind of lost interest in those stories.” Recently we heard that he decided to leave the role because of the backlash that Justice League got due to WB’s intervention. When pressed about doing “The Dark Knight Returns” kind of a story where Batman comes out of retirement, Affleck said – “in 20 years or so, maybe a very old Batman would be interesting. With a walker.”
Now it is obvious that we’re not going to see Batfleck anymore. He had so much potential. We got a comic accurate suit, the perfect looking Bruce Wayne, and a Batman that’s actually the strongest a human being could possibly be. The Warehouse fight in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was something that left fans wanting more, and a solo story with Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke would have been absolutely perfect! But it wasn’t meant to be, so let’s move on to the next thing – The Batman with Robert Pattinson.
As far as Ben Affleck is concerned, we’re going to get The Way Back, and after that we might actually get a sequel for Gavin O’Connor‘s The Accountant. Nothing is confirmed yet, but Affleck did give us an update upon The Accountant 2. He said:
“We’ve talked about it. There seems to be a debate whether or not to do a TV series version of it. The scriptwriter [Bill Dubuque] has become quite successful and busy, so he’s off doing his thing. And somebody said to me, ‘Well if we could find a script that we could retrofit and make into a sequel… But that’s sort of tricky because the personality of the character is so specific, that doesn’t really work to just say, ‘Well, we used to call this script Action Movie Shootout, and now we’re going to call it The Accountant 2′.”
Affleck continued:
“But it is one of the few movies that I’ve worked on, that I’d be thrilled to work with Gavin again and do that again. I had a great time. It was a lot of fun. It was an interesting twist on the genre and I’d love to do it. And if they want to produce a TV show version of it and I get some royalties, well that’s great too.”
Ben Affleck has also signed on to appear in Deep Water and The Last Duel. So let’s see how that goes. The Way Back arrives on March 5. The only way we’d get to see more Batfleck is if WB greenlights the launch of the Snydercut of Justice League. If that happens, and people end up loving it, then who knows, it might bring Ben Affleck back for more as well. But don’t keep your hopes high because there’s a massive chance that the relentless fans of the Snydercut will remain disappointed for life.
