Batman: Ben Affleck on why he wanted to play the Dark Knight

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

It's safe to say that Ben Affleck's tenure as the Dark Knight didn't go exactly as planned. First appearing in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Affleck went on to play the character in Suicide Squad and Justice League and was slated to direct, co-write, and star in a standalone Batman movie before he elected to step away from the character.

While speaking on THR's Awards Chatter podcast, Ben Affleck explained that "Zack [Snyder] wanted to do a version of the Frank Miller Dark Knight graphic novel series, which is a really good version of that. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons why things go the way they do in the movie business, and just because your face is on the poster doesn't mean that you're dictating all of those things — and even if you were, that they would go well." At the end of the day however, Affleck said that he "did Batman because I wanted to do it for my kids. I wanted to do something my son would dig. I mean, my kids didn't see Argo." Nothing wrong with that, and as an added bonus, Affleck was also able to wear the Bat-suit for his son's birthday party, which he says was "worth every moment of suffering on Justice League."

Although Ben Affleck has largely moved on from Batman, he will be returning to the role one more time for The Flash movie. "[Affleck's] a very substantial part of the emotional impact of the movie," said The Flash director Andy Muschietti. "The interaction and relationship between Barry and Affleck’s Wayne will bring an emotional level that we haven’t seen before. 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. He’s the baseline. He’s part of that unaltered state before we jump into Barry’s adventure. There's a familiarity there." Production on The Flash is expected to kick off this spring for a November 4, 2022 release. Additionally, Affleck will also be seen in Zack Snyder's Justice League, which will debut on HBO Max later this year.