Ben Affleck to return as Batman for DC’s The Flash

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Stop the presses! DC's Fandome hasn't even begun and already we have word from Vanity Fair that Ben Affleck will return as Bruce Wayne in the upcoming big-screen version of THE FLASH!

As the film stands today, THE FLASH is set to come racing into theaters in summer 2022. Ezra Miller, despite coming under fire for allegedly choking a woman at a bar in Reykjavik, Iceland back in April, is expected to reprise his role as speedster Barry Allen, aka The Flash. The upcoming fast-paced superhero adventure is set to be directed by Andy Muschietti, the filmmaker who recently brought Pennywise back to the big screen for the recent adaptations of Stephen King's IT and IT: CHAPTER TWO.

While plot details are being kept under wraps at this time, THE FLASH will reportedly feature Miller's sound barrier-breaking hero shattering the "bonds of physics to crash into various parallel dimensions, where he’ll encounter slightly different versions of DC’s classic heroes." (via Vanity Fair)

“His Batman has a dichotomy that is very strong, which is his masculinity—because of the way he looks, and the imposing figure that he has, and his jawline —but he’s also very vulnerable,” Muschietti said in an interview. “He knows how to deliver from the inside out, that vulnerability. He just needs a story that allows him to bring that contrast, that balance.”

Today's shocking report also states that Affleck got the script as early as last week and had agreed to join the film shortly thereafter.

“He’s a very substantial part of the emotional impact of the movie. The interaction and relationship between Barry and Affleck’s Wayne will bring an emotional level that we haven’t seen before,” the director added. "It’s Barry’s movie, it’s Barry’s story, but their characters are more related than we think. They both lost their mothers to murder, and that’s one of the emotional vessels of the movie. That’s where the Affleck Batman kicks in.”

“I’m glad to be collaborating with someone who has been on both sides of the camera, too,” Muschietti said. “He understands.”

Back in June, it was revealed that Michael Keaton was in talks to reprise the role of Batman for Muschietti's THE FLASH. The director now says that Keaton will play a "substantial" part in the events to come. As exciting as that is, Muschietti has said that the movie won't work unless Affleck's Batman is a part of the mix. “He’s the baseline. He’s part of that unaltered state before we jump into Barry’s adventure,” the director said. “There's a familiarity there.”

Later in the interview, Muschietti elaborated on how he plans to approach DC's multiverse, a complex web of worlds in which heroes and villains alike exist in a myriad of alternate dimensions. “This movie is a bit of a hinge in the sense that it presents a story that implies a unified universe where all the cinematic iterations that we’ve seen before are valid,” Muschietti said. “It’s inclusive in the sense that it is saying all that you’ve seen exists, and everything that you will see exists, in the same unified multiverse.”

For more on Ben Affleck's return to the DCEU for THE FLASH and more be sure to check out Vanity Fair's full report.

Woof! And here we thought that ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE was going to be the last time that Affleck would don the cape and cowl! How excited are you to be getting more Batfleck? Let us know in the comments section below.