Now that Jason Momoa has seemingly confirmed the return of Ben Affleck as Batman — or Batfleck, as he is affectionately known — with his apparent cameo in the upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, fans are already calling for Affleck to helm his own solo Capped Crusader film.
“A solo Batfleck movie could break all Solo Superhero movie records,” one fan wrote while sharing a hashtag that trended hard on Twitter Friday, #MakeTheBatfleckMovie.
Originally, Affleck was attached to co-write, direct and star in a DCEU project called The Batman. He ended up dropping out of the film and a completely different vision, with the same title, The Batman, co-written and directed by Matt Reeves, and starring Robert Pattinson as the morose Bruce Wayne, is what audiences were treated to in theaters earlier this year.
Though Affleck never helmed a solo outing as the Dark Knight, many fans fondly remember him as a stand-out figure in Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, with an action scene in the latter something one fan called the “best Batman action sequence.”
Another fan simply called Affleck “my Batman.”
Don’t get us wrong, we thoroughly enjoyed Reeves’ noir-infused take of the character and can’t wait to see the follow-up to The Batman. But Pattinson’s Batman exists in a separate universe — dubbed by Reeves as the Batverse — from the still-ongoing DCEU. That means, technically speaking, there’s truly room for two Batmen in the cinematic landscape.
Another fan shared a meme that summarized just how much hype DC missed out on by not announcing Batfleck appearing in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom at the recent San Diego Comic-Con, of which many DC fans were notoriously underwhelmed.
Another Twitter user tried to make the would-be verb “Batflecktivated” a thing.
Though we’ve known Affleck was slated to appear in next year’s The Flash for some time now, we previously thought that would be his very last outing as the character, as the Oscar-winning actor previously said he would be bowing out of the DCEU entirely. However, that all changed when Momoa shared an Instagram post Thursday night that showed a photo of Affleck and Momoa on the set of reshoots for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, with Momoa using the character names in the post,
“REUNITED bruce and arthur […] all great things coming AQUAMAN 2.”
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes to theaters March 17, 2023.