The casting of Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight has easily been the most talked about aspects of the upcoming BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. There were a lot of ideas thrown around amongst fans on who might make the next great Batman, and it may surprise you to know that Affleck was the first and only person approached for the role. BATMAN V SUPERMAN producer Charles Roven recently sat down with Stephen Galloway (of The Hollywood Reporter) and had a few tidbits to share regarding his casting, as well as Christopher Nolan's level of involvement.
Nolan's role on BATMAN V SUPERMAN:
[Christopher Nolan] is an executive producer on the movie, as is Emma Thomas, his wife. And I would say that he's much more focused on the movie Interstellar, writing, directing. He's certainly involved in different stages. I would say, an advisory capacity.
Whether or not he was involved with the casting of Ben Affleck:
Yes.
On casting Ben Affleck:
He was the first guy we went to. That's who we wanted. We knew that we wanted a very mature Batman, because we wanted to juxtapose him with this very young Superman. So we wanted a guy who was tougher, rugged, who had signs of life, who had lived a hard life, and we wanted the guy to have chops, for sure. So when we went down that list, there just weren't a tremendous number of guys who could carry that. We also wanted a guy with big stature. Ben is 6' 4". Henry [Cavill] is 6'1". We wanted Batman to tower over Superman. Not hugely, not like a basketball player. Superman needed to look up to Batman. We wanted that dynamic, and Ben could do that, easily.
Whether or not Affleck hesitated to take the role:
No, I wouldn't say he hesitated. I think that what he did do was that he made sure that he understood what Zack was looking for. He's much more of a social animal in the Bruce Wayne incarnation, but he's also an extremely rough guy in the Batman incarnation — very, very, very rough.
Given Nolan's executive producing status on DAWN OF JUSTICE, one can't help but wonder if Christian Bale was ever in any of the early discussions of whether or not he should be approached to play Batman. In the end, I can see why they wouldn't as that would bring up all sorts of questions about the state of Gotham after THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. While I was hoping Affleck would lend his directing credentials to the JUSTICE LEAGUE film, perhaps he'd be interested in doing so for the first solo Batman outing if there is such a thing in this new DC universe.
BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE opens March 25, 2016.