Ben Affleck Says His ‘Batman’ Won’t “Compete” With Christopher Nolan’s Version; Doomsday Rumored As Villain
Zack Snyder’s currently untitled Batman Vs. Superman project doesn’t hit screens until summer 2015. That’s basically a year and six months from now, but you’ll probably be hearing a little nugget about it every single day until its July 17th, 2015 release date. The latest? Ben Affleck sat down for a long interview with Mike Flemming for Playboy (via Latino Review) and the Deadliner got some decent Batman questions in. While Affleck danced around answers, some replies were interesting. When asked how Affleck’s take on Batman will differ from Christian Bale’s Batman, the “Argo” actor/director didn’t really answer, but said his version wouldn’t “compete” with the “The Dark Knight” trilogy that came before it.
“I don’t want to give away too much, but the idea for the new Batman is to redefine him in a way that doesn’t compete with Bale and Christopher Nolan‘s Batman but still exists within the Batman canon,” he said. “It will be an older and wiser version, particularly as he relates to Henry Cavill’s Superman character.”
Affleck revealed that he also wasn’t very interested in the role at first when Warner Bros. approached him. “When they asked if I would be Batman, I told them I don’t see myself in the role and I was going to have to beg off,” he said candidly, but evidently after talking to Snyder and co-writer David Goyer, the actor was won over. “They said I’d fit well into how they were going to approach the character and asked me to look at what the writer-director, Zack Snyder, was doing. The stuff was incredible.”
What sold him? “It was a unique take on Batman that was still consistent with the mythology,” Affleck said. “It made me excited. All of a sudden I had a reading of the character. When people see it, it will make more sense than it does now or even than it did to me initially.”
As for the super-hostile internet reaction upon the announcement of Affleck as Bruce Wayne and Batman, the actor says he expected it and realized part of it had to do with him ruining (at least in the fans eyes) the Daredevil character. Affleck even admitted that “Daredevil” the film was his one big film regret. “The only movie I actually regret is Daredevil. It just kills me. I love that story, that character, and the fact that it got fucked up the way it did stays with me. Maybe that’s part of the motivation to do Batman.”
Henry Cavill has also been talking “Batman Vs. Superman.” In a recent video interview Cavill said, “I actually have no further knowledge of this next story, but there’s a good chance Lex [Luthor] is going to be introduced soon or at some stage,” confirming what many already know to be true.
As for the latest rumors, well, self-proclaimed bigmouth producer, Daniel Alter, who is not working on the film, but is a producer on Warner Bros. projects (and he revealed a few other very plausible tidbits last month), dropped a few other nuggets today on Twitter. For one he says the Wonder Woman and Nightwing rumors are true and you will see her in the upcoming film and he also claims Doomsday, one of Superman’s arch super enemies, will be one of the villains of the picture. He also qualified that with, “For the recored/to the uninformed: I am not speaking as a representative/involved in #BatmanvsSuperman. Just a fan/in the biz/hear things…” so perhaps take it all with a grain of salt? “Batman Vs. Superman” or whatever it ends up being called, lands in theaters July 17th, 2015.
