Ben Affleck has never shied away from reflecting on his time as the DCEU's Batman, but his latest comments about Justice League are particularly candid. The actor admits that making the DC team-up "wasn't that much fun" and weighs in on the DC Studios' ongoing struggle to decide exactly who its superhero movies should be made for.
Affleck first played Bruce Wayne in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before reprising the role in Justice League the following year. While the former has its fair share of detractors, Affleck looks back on the experience fondly.
"Yeah. I really liked doing 'Batman v Superman.' That was really fun," the actor told Variety. "'Justice League' had a lot of issues, and that wasn't that much fun, frankly."
Justice League was plagued by problems, with Zack Snyder stepping away before Joss Whedon took over for extensive reshoots that changed the movie dramatically. Snyder's original vision was eventually released as Zack Snyder's Justice League in 2021, and Affleck says seeing that version finally become a reality was something he fully supported.
"I was glad that Zack [Snyder] was able to get his vision for how he wanted that movie to be out there. That was rewarding."
However, Affleck, who later returned as Batman in The Flash, also acknowledged the concerns surrounding Snyder's approach to these characters: the movies could be too dark and frightening for younger audiences.
"There was a sense of 'Oh, the movie was a little bit too dark or scary, and it lost some of the younger audience,'" he admitted. "It seems to be an ongoing question, and I don't know the answer. Do you go all the way to a hard-R rating like 'Joker'? Or do it like Marvel, which does something broad, unless you're talking about 'Deadpool & Wolverine'?"
"The interesting thing with the DC characters [comes down] to the legacy of Frank Miller," Affleck explained. "There seems to be more tension between 'Are we doing the grown-up version or the one that's open to kids?' There's a risk of being a feathered fish."
That's a problem DC is still navigating, according to Affleck, though he has nothing but praise for Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.
"It's something they're still navigating at DC," he said. "But I have to say, Kevin Feige is a kind of genius. I can't think of any producer in the world who can say, 'This is what the audience wants,' and be right, except for him."
As a reminder, Affleck previously said he would "absolutely not" direct a movie for DC Studios and, while he has no issue with James Gunn, he's "not interested" in how the DCU is shaping up.
With DC Studios now building an entirely new shared universe under Gunn and Peter Safran, Affleck's comments raise an interesting question: has the franchise finally found the right balance, or is this still an identity crisis waiting to happen?
PG-13 blockbusters Superman and Supergirl were opposites both critically and commercially, meaning this month's Clayface—an R-rated horror movie—will be a big test to see what audiences want from the new DCU.