Whether you’re a fan of Ben Affleck as Batman or not, one of the biggest “What if?”s within the DCEU remains his standalone outing as the Caped Crusader. While that movie was apparently discarded for reasons ranging from the star being unsure it would have worked to his own bout with addiction, Bat-fans can’t help but wonder what it would have brought. As it turns out: a lot.
Storyboard artist (and director in his own right) Jay Oliva, who first worked with Zack Snyder on 2013’s Man of Steel and also on 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, revealed to Inverse that he was brought in to work on Affleck’s Batman movie sometime around the second draft or so, giving him some insider information on what would have filled out the movie’s story. “I can’t really say too much other than it was f*cking awesome…It was the best. It was amazing.”
So what was so amazing about it? As it seems, it was the sheer scope and ambition of the project that would have made Affleck’s Batman movie stand out. “I’ve worked on a lot of Batman things and what was really cool about it was, it was tying together a lot of really cool Batman storylines that had never been really explored…Ben’s story was gonna cover something that had never really been covered in comics but was building off of storylines in the Batman mythos over the last 80 years and approaching it from a new kind of perspective.”
Ben Affleck previously confirmed there was an “elaborate plan” for the character but didn’t go into many details. And while Oliva is certainly excited over what could have been, Affleck never got comfortable or confident with the material. As it is, Affleck’s last outing as Batman is in The Flash. Fine, but at least give us more Clooney!
Oliva’s other Batman outings include directing Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and Justice League Dark.
Do you think Ben Affleck’s standalone Batman movie would have been good? What do you make of the scope of it? Give us your insights in the comments section below!