THE BATMAN Director Ben Affleck Explains Why Deathstroke Was The Best Choice For His Solo Film
It's been over a month since Ben Affleck revealed Deathstroke as the villain for his upcoming solo Batman feature and now, he shares some insight on what led him to the decision. Come take a look!
Ben Affleck may be on the press tour for his upcoming thriller The Accountant, but all everyone seems to be interested in asking him are questions about one of his next directorial ventures, The Batman, a title he himself revealed earlier this morning.
In an interview with our friends over at Collider, when asked about why he felt Slade Wilson, better known by his alias Deathstroke, would be the perfect fit for the Bat's first solo outing in the DC Extended Universe, Affleck explained: “He’s a great villain because—I just had an instinctive feeling that he would match up with him well. You know, I’m a big admirer of that character as well, especially in the New 52 the way that they did Deathstroke, and I thought that it could work.”
Considering how well their brutal showdown in the video game Batman: Arkham Origins was received, Affleck is certainly on the right track. However, with Joe Manganiello (Spider-Man) already attached to the role and expected to make his debut in next year's Justice League, it sounds like there could be some minor repurposing involved with his origin story since the New 52 version of the classic DC Comics villain is generally depicted as an older gentleman.
Before he can get to the Caped Crusader, the 2x Academy Award-winner has quite a busy slate ahead of him, having recently wrapped Zack Snyder's Justice League and having completed post-production on his next project, the Prohibition-era crime drama Live By Night, which is due out early 2017. He's also currently working on developing The Batman script alongside DC Films head honcho Geoff Johns.
There's no date set for the film just yet, but it's been heavily rumored that it could arrive as soon as October 5, 2018.
So, what do you guys think? Sound off with your thoughts below!