Ben Affleck will play Batman
Warner Bros. announced Thursday that the 41-year-old actor-director will star as a new incarnation of the Dark Knight in a film bringing Batman and Superman together.
The studio said Affleck will star opposite 30-year-old Henry Cavill – who will reprise his role as Superman from “Man of Steel.” The movie will also feature “Man of Steel” stars Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White and Diane Lane as Martha Kent.
The big-screen DC Comics superhero mash-up was first revealed by director Zack Snyder at last month’s Comic-Con International in San Diego.
Snyder (who will direct the sequel written by “Man of Steel” screenwriter David S. Goyer) said in a statement that Affleck will provide an “interesting counter-balance” to Cavill’s Clark Kent.
Ben Affleck.
Holy casting news, Robin! Ben Affleck will take on the role of Batman in the as-yet-unnamed superhero movie coming from Warner Bros. in the summer of 2015.
“Affleck and filmmaker Zack Snyder will create an entirely new incarnation of the character in Snyder’s as-yet-untitled project — bringing Batman and Superman together for the first time on the big screen and continuing the director’s vision of their universe, which he established in ‘Man of Steel’” – Warner Bros. said in a statement.
At Comic-Con in July, the studio announced that the two superheroes would battle each other in the upcoming film.
“Let’s face it, it’s beyond mythological to have Superman and our new Batman facing off, since they are the greatest superheroes in the world” – Snyder said at the time.
Speculation about the casting of Batman had previously revolved around Josh Brolin, Joe Manganiello, Richard Armitage, and a handful of other names mentioned in off-the-record discussions around Hollywood regarding who was on the short-list for consideration as Batman. Ben Affleck has long been a fan-favorite suggestion as a potential director for the Batman franchise movies (he was my personal top pick for the job, as I discussed in this article), but few people had suggested Affleck was a contender for the lead role as Batman himself.
In the past, Affleck referred to his role in 2003′s Daredevil in pretty negative terms. He said “(B)y playing a superhero…. I have inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero.” He said that wearing a superhero costume “was a source of humiliation,” and that he wouldn’t want to do it again soon. However, late last year he told MTV (in response to a question about his name coming up as a contender to direct a possible Justice League superhero team-up movie) that he’d “love to do one (a superhero film)” if he thought it could be done well.
Most folks thought Affleck’s remarks about his Daredevil experience made it highly unlikely he would don a cowl to play Batman. The prospects of him as a director of the series, though, were still worth considering. Now that he’s cast in the lead role, does that mean Affleck might also sit in the director’s chair for future solo Batman films? Maybe. One thing a lot of us wondered about the upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie was whether the future director of the Batman films would have any input on the selection of the performer and on the portrayal. Affleck’s casting as Batman deals nicely with that dilemma, if indeed he takes on the director’s role as well, which I sure hope he does.