There was a lot of excitement when Ben Affleck was introduced as the next Batman a few years ago. However, following a string of mediocre reviews and a frightening experience filming The Justice League, the actor has announced that he would no longer portray the role after his appearance in The Flash.
Ben said in a recent interview that he will no longer be portraying the character, implying that The Flash will be his final picture as Bruce Wayne and his alter ego. This may put to rest rumors that he was in discussions with DC and Warner Brothers to produce a solo Batman web series.
“I won’t be playing Batman much longer,” Ben told the Herald Sun, adding that he had a “very, very hard experience” working on The Justice League with Joss Whedon, which led to him resuming drinking. “I started drinking too much around the time of Justice League, and it’s a hard thing to confront and face and deal with,” Ben stated in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year. It was for this reason that he first left the DC world, abandoning his solo Batman project.
Ben did say that his sequences and scenes as Batman for The Flash were the most enjoyable he’d ever had portraying the role, and that he believes the creators had finally figured out how to depict him on television. “I’ve never said this before – this is hot off the press – but perhaps my favorite scenes in terms of Batman and the Batman interpretation that I’ve done were in the Flash movie,” he confessed. “I hope they keep the integrity of what we did,” he said, “because I thought it was great and really interesting – different, but not in a way that is incongruent with the character.”
But this isn’t the first time Ben has ditched the cape and cowl. He had departed the job five years prior following The Justice League, but was convinced to return for The Flash.
Ezra Miller’s first solo feature as the DC speedster, The Flash, will be released later this year. The picture, directed by Andrés Muschietti, also stars Kiersey Clemons and Michael Keaton, who reprises his role as Batman from the 1989 film.