During the roughly eight-month-long lull between the release of Justice League and San Diego Comic-Con, WB drew the ire of many a zealot as the Big Six studio went back to the drawing board, and while talk of the Snyder cut has since died down, another uprising may not be far behind.
Although he may no longer be the leading candidate to don the cape and cowl in The Batman, Ben Affleck reportedly penned a “kick-ass” script, before the two-time Academy Award winner was ultimately removed from the project.
According to storyboard artist Jay Oliva, back when Zack Snyder was running the show and WB had awarded Affleck his own Dark Knight flick, the Berkeley, California native composed “the best Batman script” that Oliva had ever read. Evidently, “Ben had a kick-ass story” that the audience “would have loved” – which, I suppose, is more than one can say about Justice League.
Unfortunately, seeing as Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes) is the one running calling the shots now, and the cost of insuring Big Ben has, for all intents and purposes, ruled him out of the project, the screenplay will likely never see the light of day. On the plus side, though, The Batman does appear to be finally moving forward, and WB has inarguably gotten their act together over the last little while.
Granted, thinking of the bygone age in which Snyder and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice filled the DCEU with such promise is painful, but with the unveiling of the first Shazam! teaser, some unpolished Wonder Woman 1984 footage and the first Aquaman trailer at SDCC, it’s hard not to get excited about the future.