Ben Affleck's The Batman Is One Of The Best Superhero Movies Never Made
Welcome to The Best Movies Never Made, a look back at the most fascinating, strange, and tantalizing films that never actually made it in front of cameras — and maybe should have.
There are many different flavors of Batman movies. There's Tim Burton's German expressionist gothic fantasy, the romantic drama of the animated "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," Christopher Nolan's gritty crime epic "Dark Knight" trilogy, and the grungy murder mystery of "The Batman." But in the cracks of those Batman movies are plenty of unrealized projects, and the one that haunts me the most is "The Batman," starring and directed by Ben Affleck.
Affleck had arguably the most tumultuous time in the role of any live-action Batman actor. I was one of the foolish skeptics befuddled by his casting in "Batman v Superman," but I walked out of that movie excited to see more of his Batman. Given Affleck had distinguished himself as a director (his 2012 movie "Argo" won Best Picture), there was a natural assumption that when his Batman eventually got a movie, Affleck himself would also direct it.
That was the plan, and in the lead-up to "Batman v Superman," Affleck sounded excited to mount the challenge. Speaking to USA Today in 2016, he described playing Batman under Snyder's direction almost like an apprenticeship preparing him to direct Batman himself.
"I would never have imagined that I could or would direct a movie like this. And in working with [Snyder] and seeing what he did and watching him every day, I got really inspired by that and by seeing the scope on which he was telling the story, by seeing what he was able to do with this kind of mythic story on a grand scale."
But then came the not-so-great reaction to "Batman v Superman." And then Affleck's passion project "Live By Night" bombed, and "Justice League" was ill-recieved too. Due to his personal struggles with addiction, Affleck stepped away from the movie — and ultimately from playing Batman entirely.
Director Matt Reeves overhauled "The Batman" completely, and that movie is a great consolation prize. But you know what they say about grass on the other side. Affleck's aborted Batman reign feels like a squandered opportunity, and the collapse of his "The Batman" is the worst symptom of that.
Ben Affleck's The Batman sounds like Knightfall with Deathstroke instead of Bane
In a 2019 appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", Affleck said he wasn't able to "crack" his "Batman" script; he was co-writing with Chris Terrio ("Argo") and prolific DC writer Geoff Johns. No drafts have ever leaked, so we're still somewhat in the dark on the exact story of Affleck's "The Batman." But we do know that Deathstroke/Slade Wilson (Joe Mangianello) was going to be the main villain.
"Zack Snyder's Justice League" includes a scene of Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) giving Slade Batman's secret identity, setting up the "Batman" we never got. Mangianello has said (via Heroic Hollywood) that Slade was seeking revenge for his dead son. (In the comics, Grant Wilson died trying to impress his father by fighting the Teen Titans. It would have been easy to have Grant's target be Batman instead.)
Storyboard artist and DC animation director Jay Oliva told Inverse that Affleck's "The Batman" would've pulled together 80 years of Batman comic stories. But one in particular jumps out at me as a likely inspiration: "Knightfall," in which Bane destroys Batman piece by piece. In the movie, it could instead have been Slade coming to break the Bat.
While "The Dark Knight Rises" featured the most famous moment of "Knightfall" — Bane (Tom Hardy) literally breaking Batman's (Christian Bale) back — the movie couldn't rival the scope of the comic, which was filled with other super-villains and Bat-family sidekicks. Regarding the latter, we know at least Batgirl was planned to appear in Affleck's "Batman."
Though Deathstroke was not created as a Batman villain, he functions well as an evil ubermensch mirror to the Dark Knight because they're both master martial artists and keen strategists who mentor young people in their own image. Couple that with Slade's visceral revenge motivation, and we could've seen Batman's greatest challenge on film yet.
Ben Affleck's The Batman was looking to a different David Fincher movie for inspiration
As a serial killer mystery, Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson's "The Batman" is often compared to David Fincher's "Se7en." Joe Manganiello indicates Fincher (who directed Affleck in "Gone Girl") would've been an influence on Affleck's "Batman" too.
Speaking to ComicBook.com, Manganiello invoked "The Game," Fincher's 1997 movie about a depressed financier (Michael Douglas) who's targeted by a conspiracy that starts taking everything from him. In that vein, Deathstroke would have "systematically [dismantled] Bruce's life and murdering all the people in it, and [destroy] his finances and just basically [paint] him into a corner," Mangianello said.
But unlike Douglas in "The Game," Batman is not helpless, so no doubt he would have fought back. Matt Reeves, discussing Affleck and company's "Batman" script on "The Q&A" podcast, said it was "action-driven" and "filled with a lot of set pieces," comparing it to a James Bond movie.
One of the absolute highlights of Affleck's debut as Batman in "Batman v Superman" was the scene where he fights a warehouse full of thugs, tearing them apart with brute strength and gadgets alike. It's the one Batman action scene in movie history that captures how he hits like a tank but moves with the speed of a ninja. Imagine a Batman film filled with scenes like that, including ones where Batman would finally have an adversary who could match him blow for blow.
Such an action film would've been a new experience for Affleck as a director. But looking at his past films, I still see his "in" for Batman beyond spectacle. "Gone Baby Gone" and "The Town," both set in his native Boston, are crime movies about how the community you're raised in defines you. That, too, is the sentiment of Batman's crusade to protect Gotham City. Some rumored details of the movie suggest Affleck's "The Batman" could delivered the most comic-accurate Gotham yet; a dark, brooding metropolis, but also one filled with countless eccentric super-villains.
Cinematographer Robert Richardson claims Ben Affleck's The Batman was set in Arkham Asylum
Robert Richardson, the go-to cinematographer of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, shot Ben Affleck's "Live by Night" and "Air." He was also Affleck's pick to shoot "The Batman," and the thought of a "Batman" movie with one of the living legends of cinematography behind the camera should excite any movie fan.
In a 2019 appearance on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, Richardson shared the unfilmed script was set at least partially at Arkham Asylum. Moreover, the movie would've explored the "insanity aspects" and "darker side" of Batman, too.
Richardson's comments lead me to suspect that Affleck might've been looking to the "Batman: Arkham Asylum" video game or Grant Morrison & Dave McKean's "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" for additional inspiration. These are stories of Batman trapped inside Arkham surrounded by his greatest enemies.
The DC Extended Universe promised a silver screen Batman closer to the comics than ever — one who lives in a universe filled with other superheroes, and who has a fully assembled rogues gallery. If "The Batman" detoured to Arkham, might we have seen classic super-villains like the Riddler, Two-Face, and the Scarecrow?
Speaking to Esquire, Matt Reeves also claimed Affleck's "Batman" script "was very deeply connected to the DCEU, with other major characters from other movies and other comics popping up." Bringing in DC superhero cameos besides Batgirl, and featuring the A-List Batman villains together? That would certainly explain Jay Oliva's comments about the movie welding together Batman's comic history like no other film has.
I love Christopher Nolan and Matt Reeves' Batman movies, but they both consciously strip down the fantasy of the source material, offering the pitch of Batman if he existed in the real world. Conversely, the Batman movies that do show how wacky a place Gotham City can be like the Joel Schumacher films are full-on camp. Affleck's "The Batman" could finally threaded a needle that so many comic books have; a Gotham City that's both heightened and gothic, and allows Batman to be fantastical without forgetting he's the Dark Knight.
Concept art shows Batman would've gotten a tactical upgrade
I still remember the first moment Ben Affleck as Batman started to win me over. It was well before the movie, when we got the first grayscale look at his Batman costume. It's a pet peeve of mine how so many movie Batsuits clad the hero in all black, when in the comics, Batman's costume is mostly grey. The "Batman v Superman" Batsuit was the first one since Adam West to acknowledge this. Zack Snyder is a noted devotee of Frank Miller's defining 1986 comic "The Dark Knight Returns," and Miller crafted a Batman who leaped off that comic's pages.
However, concept art for Affleck's "The Batman" indicates that part of the filmmaker finding his own vision for the character included a new aesthetic. Concept art for Affleck's "The Batman" shared by Ken Christensen showed a more segmented, armored Batman suit, closer to the one worn by Christian Bale's Dark Knight.
Christensen wrote on his ArtStation post that he "wanted to make a suit that felt like real ballistic materials while still maintaining the icon." That can also be seen with the design overhaul of Deathstroke he shared:
"I thought it might be cool if there was a track arcing up from the eye that various bits of [lens] tech could slide into," wrote Christensen.
Snyder brought comic book-like grandeur to Batman, whereas it appears Affleck could've dug back into the nitty gritty. As much as I suspect this could've fixed a problem that wasn't there, I still mourn not seeing a face-off between Batman and Deathstroke as conceived by Christensen.
Ben Affleck's Batman was a casualty of a chaotic DC Universe
In 2017, we learned Affleck would not be directing "The Batman." He was still planning to star at that time, but later walked away from that, too. Matt Reeves was hired soon after, but the script wasn't the "Batman" he wanted to make. When Affleck left altogether, that opened the door for Reeves to craft a Batman all his own. The arc Reeves wrote for his Bruce Wayne — a Year 2 novice still learning how to be Batman — sat at the opposite pole from Affleck's Batman, a veteran seeing his past catching up to him as he worries about his legacy.
Of course, the collapse of Affleck's "The Batman" is merely a subplot in a larger story — the failure of the DC Extended Universe. "Batman v Superman" was meant to be an elevation of this saga, and the movie's poor reception made the whole enterprise blow up in Warner Bros.' face before it could properly take off.
Like Affleck walking away from "The Batman," WB has since thrown its hands up and relaunched a new DC Universe that's off to a better start so far with James Gunn's 2025 "Superman." But don't expect Affleck to be wooed back, as Batman or not. Speaking to The L.A. Times in 2022, Affleck seemed at peace with putting Batman behind him: "I looked at ['Batman'] and thought, 'I'm not going to be happy doing this. The person who does this should love it.'"
In 2023, Affleck also told The Hollywood Reporter he would "absolutely not" direct a movie in the new DC Universe. Between Batman and his role in the panned 2003 "Daredevil," he's definitely had enough superhero headaches for a lifetime.