Ben Affleck may not be getting a Batman movie after all, according to reports

Rory Cashin

Holy delayed production, Batman!

Okay, before we start with the new stuff, let us do a quick recap of what has come already:

Affleck had been signed on to write, direct and star in The Batman, the first stand-alone movie for the Caped Crusader since the new DC Movie Universe kicked off, and the first since Bale hung up the cowl in The Dark Knight Rises.
After a will-he-won’t-he few weeks, Matt Reeves (Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, Cloverfield) signed on to direct The Batman when Affleck confirmed he would be departing the director’s chair.
Reeves then announced that he had jettisoned Affleck’s original script for the movie, and would be starting from scratch with the story, bringing the character back to the more detective heavy roots.

Now, for a little background colouring:

In the interim, the more colourful, more upbeat vibe of Wonder Woman was released to fantastic reviews and brilliant box office, higher than either Batman V Superman or Suicide Squad.
Justice League had originally been intended to be two movies, but has since been semi-ditched, with only the first movie set in stone at the moment.
Zack Snyder, director of Man Of Steel and BVS, had to drop out filming Justice League mid-production due to a personal tragedy, and was replaced by Joss Whedon (The Avengers), who is reportedly in the middle of a lot of reshoots for the movie, which is due for release this November.

Clip via Warner Bros. Pictures

Now, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the standalone Batman movie may not be happening at all.

With DC putting Suicide Squad 2 and the still-uncast Shazam at the top of the production pile once the first Justice League is done and dusted, it would likely be late 2018 before The Batman would begin production, which would put Affleck at nearly 50 before the movie starts filming.

Comparatively, the rest of the Justice League are much younger, ranging from Jason Momoa’s Aquaman (37) to The Flash’s Ezra Miller (24).

Admittedly, actors can and do play super-heroes into their 50’s (Robert Downey Jnr as Iron Man is currently 52), and there are plenty of “Old Man Batman” stories to go through that involve that passing of the mantle from Bruce Wayne to a new trainee.

However, with rumour rumblings questioning why Affleck didn’t film a Wonder Woman cameo combined the back-and-forth between everything on his standalone movie, it is plausible that WB are looking to force a re-do and recast it entirely.

Which is a shame, because Affleck was pretty great as both Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego, and that scrap he had with Lex Luthor’s goons in Batman V Superman was pretty spectacular.