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Ben Affleck, who played Bruce Wayne/Batman in five films for the DC Extended Universe, revealed some information regarding the villain of his scrapped Batman film. During a recent appearance at Zack Snyder's Full Circle Justice League event, the actor shared that he would have originally directed and acted in the movie.
Prior to Robert Pattinson and Matt Reeves' The Batman being fully realized and hitting screens in March 2022, Affleck was supposed to star in, produce, and direct a Batman film based on his iteration of the character. He said the character would have faced the villain Deathstroke, who would have been played by Joe Manganiello. Actor Joe Manganiello previously made a cameo as the character in both Snyder and Joss Whedon's Justice League.
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Although audiences never got to see Ben Affleck's solo Batman film due to it being canceled and thus his vision for Deathstroke, they now know of another idea that the actor had for the antagonist of his scrapped film.
Ben Affleck wanted to make Deathstroke very interesting and complex in his canceled Batman film
While on Zack Snyder's Full Circle Justice League panel, when Ben Affleck was asked about his vision for Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke in his scrapped Batman film, the actor revealed that he had planned to make interesting, nuanced, and complex characters, among which Deathstroke was one of them. The actor and filmmaker said:
"There were a number of them that I was kind of exploring. And, the plans were to make interesting, nuanced, complex characters, in particular to the character you mentioned."
He continued:
"I kind of feel like either you do - I'm just going to get into my own preference here - but either you do a kind of massive one villain that is so formidable you just can't imagine how your protagonist is going to be able to overcome it. Or you have to really sort of populate kind of, you know, Injustice - these big group villains - where you have to get all these different characters."
Ben Affleck also revealed in the panel that he wanted to make Deathstroke impressive since he felt that there was an opportunity to do it. Back when his Batman film was still in active development, Affleck revealed in an interview with Collider how Deathstroke was a good villain and that he had an instinctive feeling that the character would match up with his iteration of Batman on-screen.
Affleck even praised Deathstroke's depiction in DC's The New 52 run of comics and was positive that the villain would have worked in the film.
Ben Affleck's future as Batman in the DC Universe
As of now, Ben Affleck does not have a future as Batman following The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which are confirmed to be his last appearances as the character, as James Gunn has confirmed that the character will be recast for the film The Brave and The Bold. But Gunn had revealed on Twitter that he was interested in working with Affleck in his DC Universe at some point in the future, with the latter in a directorial role.
However, contrary to what the Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker had said, Ben Affleck revealed that he was not interested in directing a DC movie under James Gunn, despite not having anything against the newly appointed co-CEO of DC Studios.
"I would not direct something for the [James] Gunn DC. Absolutely not. I have nothing against James Gunn. Nice guy, sure he’s going to do a great job. I just wouldn’t want to go in and direct in the way they’re doing that. I’m not interested in that."
Although Ben Affleck does not have a future as the Dark Knight following The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, fans of his take on Batman can only hope that he reprises his role in the future in a multiversal capacity.
Fans of Affleck, especially his iteration of Batman, can next catch him in The Flash, which will be released on June 16, 2023. Prior to that, he will star as a detective in Robert Rodriguez's action-thriller Hypnotic that will release on May 2023.
