After agreeing to return as the DCEU’s Batman in The Flash, Ben Affleck will set a record by playing the Dark Knight in live-action for the fourth time, a truly unique distinction when you consider that he never got the opportunity to star in a solo adventure of his own. In fact, his lead as the longest-tenured Caped Crusader is extended to five if you count Zack Snyder’s Justice League as an all-new movie, which most people do given the general apathy directed towards the theatrical release and the filmmaker’s promise of a completely different spin on the story.
Of course, everyone was expecting Snyder to be restricted to working with the footage he already had available when assembling his new version of the all-star epic, but Warner Bros. are intent to ensure that Justice League atones for the sins of the past and finally manages to deliver the movie that fans were hoping for the second time around. And so, they’re allowing him to film some additional material now.
The director has already gathered together many of the original stars for reshoots and added several fresh faces including Jared Leto’s Joker and Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke, and in a new interview, he confirmed that Ben Affleck had suited up again. Of course, we already knew the two-time Academy Award winner would return as Bruce Wayne, but this is the first confirmation we’ve had that he squeezed himself back into the Batsuit.
“I think he forgot how uncomfortable it is, but that’s fine. He was incredibly gracious… A couple of the costumes, you know, have been in archives for a while. They were all over the place, in museums and stuff and we had to tear them out of there. You kknow, I think one of the cowls was put on and just kind of like ripped in half.”
Having initially retired from the role, Affleck’s Batman now looks to be back in a big way, and fans will be hoping that his Justice League return leads to more adventures for his grizzled veteran take on the character, one that was never fully explored during his first run in the franchise.