The ‘will he, won’t he?’ saga surrounding Ben Affleck and his future as the Caped Crusader – or lack thereof – has kept DC fans on tenterhooks for months.
Since handing over the baton to Matt Reeves, who has been placed in control of The Batman ahead of a production start in 2018, those rumors casting doubt over Affleck’s role in the DCEU have been relentless. This alleged uncertainty has led to a series of back-and-forth exchanges from Reeves and other key members of Warner Bros., who, to their credit, have all stood by Ben Affleck as the one true Batman.
In fact, Affleck himself has shot down multiple reports that called his DCEU future into question (“I’m in it for as long as they’ll have me” was the actor’s last big statement back in July), but now, on the eve of Justice League, it seems Ben Affleck is no longer all in, as it were.
During a recent interview with Extra (see above), the writer-director was asked whether fans can expect a five-film turn as Gotham’s Dark Knight – Justice League takes him up to three when counting Suicide Squad. And around the 40-second mark, you’ll see that Ben Affleck visibly shrugs off the suggestion, before noting that, “we’ll see what the future holds.” Cue another round of intense speculation.
We are, at the time of writing, only 10 days out from the release of Justice League. The goods news is that Zack Snyder’s superhero epic continues to perform well in early screenings – Diane Lane even went so far as to say that she was “totally impressed” with the final cut – however, there is one caveat to all the pre-release buzz: Warner has reportedly set the review embargo to lift on November 15th, only two days before D-day.