Initially, the news that Ben Affleck would play the Dark Knight in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice drew a mixed response from fans. The actor proved his detractors wrong with the 2016 movie, but it received negative reviews and underperformed at the box office.
Still, he went all in on the DCEU and made a cameo appearance in Suicide Squad before returning in Justice League. Affleck's experience working with filmmaker Joss Whedon on the movie's reshoots soured him on the role, and he ultimately decided to walk away from his and Geoff Johns' version of The Batman.
While he was somehow talked into returning for The Flash and an eventual Crisis on Infinite Earths movie, the latter project was scrapped when DC Studios was formed and James Gunn decided Batman would be recast for the DCU.
For whatever reason, Affleck has made it clear he has little to no interest in working with the filmmaker, so there's zero chance of him donning the cape and cowl for The Brave and the Bold.
Talking to GQ for The Accountant 2, Affleck reflected on his time as the Caped Crusader. "I had a really good time. I loved doing the Batman movie. I loved Batman v Superman," he admitted. "And I liked my brief stints on The Flash that I did and when I got to work with Viola Davis on Suicide Squad for a day or two."
"In terms of creatively, I really think that I like the idea and the ambition that I had for it, which was of the sort of older, broken, damaged Bruce Wayne. And it was something we really went for in the first movie."
Affleck then went on to share his take on where it all went wrong for his Batman. "What happened was it started to skew too old for a big part of the audience. Like even my own son at the time was too scared to watch the movie," the actor explained. "And so when I saw that I was like, 'Oh shit, we have a problem.'"
"Then I think that’s when you had a filmmaker that wanted to continue down that road and a studio that wanted to recapture all the younger audience at cross purposes," he added, alluding to Zack Snyder's clash with Warner Bros and how that ultimately led to two different versions of Justice League.
"Then you have two entities, two people really wanting to do something different and that is a really bad recipe."
Affleck's version of The Batman was supposed to pit the hero against Desthstroke, while The Flash's scrapped post-credits scene revealed that he was trapped in a different reality.
Neither story will come to fruition now, and his time as the character ended on something of a bum note thanks to the Scarlet Speedster's goofy take on the Gotham City crimefighter. Based on these remarks, at least Affleck enjoyed that experience.
As always, you can share your take on these remarks in the comments section.