Another week, another rumour about the DCEU. This time, it’s around who’ll replace Ben Affleck as Batman – and let’s face it, it’s looking less and less likely that Batfleck will continue. It’s sad news since he made a terrific Dark Knight, but his heart doesn’t appear to be in it anymore and he wants out.
Recently, there were murmurs that Jake Gyllenhaal was Matt Reeves’ pick to portray the Caped Crusader in The Batman; however, there have been conflicting reports saying Warner Bros. isn’t too keen on the actor. Personally, I think Gyllenhaal is an exceptional actor and would kill it if the film explored a younger Batman.
Where Things Stand Right Now
Yesterday, two interesting pieces of news broke. The first came from Variety, which ran an exclusive about the future of the DCEU. Apart from discussing the studio’s plans to shake things up, journalist Brent Lang said:
“While Ben Affleck is expected to appear as Batman in a standalone Flash movie, it is highly unlikely he will don the cape and cowl in Matt Reeves’ planned standalone Batman movie. The director is said to want to cast the role with fresh talent, according to sources.”
It’s obvious that Lang is referring to Flashpoint. Whether Affleck is there or not, though, depends on when The Batman will be released. Sure, the time-travelling Flash film could be used to reboot (or recast Bruce Wayne in this instance), but it appears as if Warner is set on a straight swap without needing to cross the timeline streams. If that’s so, the next piece of news could be truer than what we think.
It’s Hamm-er Time
The second scoop came from Radar Online, stating that Mad Men‘s Jon Hamm wants the Batman role. According to the publication’s unnamed source, Reeves is a big fan of Hamm:
“Matt thinks Jon is charming and was a big fan of Mad Men, so it seems like a great transition to him. Jake Gyllenhaal has also been chasing the role, and Matt has definitely been considering him. But Jon is closer to Ben’s age and look, and will be a smoother replacement to fit into the plans already in place.”
That quote sums it all up: it’ll be a smoother transition. At 46 years old, Hamm is only one year older than Affleck and arguably in better shape. He’s also 1.88m tall, which counts in his favour, and possesses a strong jaw line and dapper look for the dual role as Bruce Wayne and Batman. In many people’s minds, he’s as picture-perfect as the character as Affleck is/was. (Heck, even when I played Arkham Knight, I thought to myself that Bruce Wayne’s look was modelled on Hamm himself.)
Additionally, Hamm is a well-known and award-winning actor, but he isn’t quite in the same A-list leading man category as Affleck. This doesn’t mean that he isn’t talented, because he is and might even be a better actor than Affleck. It’s important for the reason that Warner locks someone down who’ll be able to commit to the role for a substantial time without hassle. They don’t want someone who’ll constantly have scheduling conflicts – especially not after Henry Cavill’s moustache saga.
What’s Next?
At the moment, Warner doesn’t want to admit that Justice League disappointed, nor is the studio likely to. Behind the scenes, though, the execs know it’s time for a massive shake-up.
While Affleck plays a cat-and-mouse game with them, they’re undoubtedly shifting around uncomfortably in their seats since Batman is a massive money-maker. It’s time to put the speculation to rest and steady this ship.
We’ll always have our memories of Batfleck to hold on to, but it’s time to embrace the future – and that future could very well be Bat-Hamm.
Why are we discussing new Batmans? Ben Affleck is still really cool
Read the article. Apparently he is stepping down soon.
Fook ? will start reading before I put my 2 cents next time ?
He already stepped down. Warner bros is just trying to spin it so it seems like every things fine . Wait for the ” creative differences” speech
2 things..
1. Matt Reeves never said he didn’t want Affleck.
2. Affleck never said he wanted to leave Batman. He said he was unsure about his role in The Batman.
This is where the Matt Reeves rumor came from.. “a new rumour clarification has hit Twitter from ScreenRant’s Rob Keyes suggesting he won’t be back for The Batman.” http://whatculture.com/film/the-batman-rumour-matt-reeves-doesn-39-t-want-ben-affleck
Ben Affleck saying he wants to “quit”.. false. He never said that. This is what he said. The new Batman movie being developed by Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes) is “something I’m contemplating,” says Affleck, who originally was tapped to direct. “You don’t do it forever, so I want to find a graceful and cool way to segue out of it.” Affleck never said he doesn’t want to be Batman in the film, but says you can’t be Batman forever. So he’s gonna find a cool way to siege out.. not right now, but in the near future. At no point did he say he was done with Batman or wanted to quit the role of The Batman. I swear.. these sites loves to twist words around for clicks.
Isn’t he older than Affleck??
We are dealing with the older Bruce Wayne in this story-arc though…
Think ‘Dark Knight Returns’ … and then the older actor starts to make a lot more sense (y)
http://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/batman-the-dark-knight-returns-0
By a year
Yeah but we already got a version of that, I think we all want a Batman in his prime!
Give Batman back to Nolan and Bale.
And give the DCEU to someone who can write a decent, consistent script and/or direct well. #Martha
U obviously have no idea about stuff. Batman was never taken from Nolan, he had enough. He doesn’t want to do Superhero stuff anymore.
If u have problems with Snyder stuff, is because u never read any comics before.
No, exactly the opposite. Whoever has written comics about Batman knows that Snyder/Affleck Batman just isn’t Batman, that’s why it failed. Only Snyder/ Affleck fans insist that this ”Batman” is comic accurate.
Yeah you seem to be “Marvelized” Snyders takes are very true to many of the comic books and the fact that you cannot see what the point of “martha” was. If you don’t want to read the comic books then fine, DC has done great with most of their Animated movies and they have been taken straight from Comics some of them.almost exact.
So firstly, keyboard warriors, I read a lot of both DC and Marvel comics. Definitely not Marvelised.
Secondly, I do realise Nolan intended on creating a trilogy and felt his work was done after the 3rd DK movie. My “Give it back to Nolan” comment was in jest; referring to the “Given Spiderman/F4/Xmen back to Marvel” memes.
Lastly, converting a comic book DIRECTLY into a movie doesn’t always work. Case in point with the DCEU. The same can be said for books, the screenplay translation from literature (book/comic book) isn’t seamless. The Lord of the Rings for example was, perhaps, the greatest fantasy books and movies of all time BUT the books and movies differ a lot in many aspects. Some may argue that the movies are not true to the books…and for good reason, which made the movies masterpieces.
People who have problem with Snyder’s films don’t read comics lol stupid logic
I read comics and didn’t enjoyed bvs I thought it was ok
What’s so comic accurate about Doomsday
The whole movie wasn’t based on any comic
You don’t have to read comic books to see a comic book movie
YES!!!
John Hamm is a year older than Ben. Do it!
2 things..
1. Matt Reeves never said he didn’t want Affleck.
2. Affleck never said he wanted to leave Batman. He said he was unsure about his role in The Batman.
This is where the Matt Reeves rumor came from.. “a new rumour clarification has hit Twitter from ScreenRant’s Rob Keyes suggesting he won’t be back for The Batman.” http://whatculture.com/film/the-batman-rumour-matt-reeves-doesn-39-t-want-ben-affleck
Ben Affleck saying he wants to “quit”.. false. He never said that. This is what he said. The new Batman movie being developed by Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes) is “something I’m contemplating,” says Affleck, who originally was tapped to direct. “You don’t do it forever, so I want to find a graceful and cool way to segue out of it.” Affleck never said he doesn’t want to be Batman in the film, but says you can’t be Batman forever. So he’s gonna find a cool way to siege out.. not right now, but in the near future. At no point did he say he was done with Batman or wanted to quit the role of The Batman. I swear.. these sites loves to twist words around for clicks.
Bat hmm?? Mekhael Pandit
He looks like Thomas Wayne to me. :/
I’d totally love JON HAMM as Batman but will he keep up with the Physical Training that is Necessary
He would be great in the arrowverse… So would Whedon… Because those 2 would ruin dceu… Nail in the coffin
Joly Norgate I’m all for this.
I would much rather they kept batfleck ? but I do love the Hamm, he’s definitely got the right look about him and he’s a fantastic actor, just needs to get jacked up a bit son!
Did you misspell ‘Idris Elba’?
SarpCan Alcicek
i want him to be superman
Nope
Galib Shahriar Neion
He doesn’t know how to fight , besides he’s skinny ,he was the police officer in the Ben afflecks “the town” movie
That explains a lot…WB continues with ‘buddies”: Ben Affleck, his buddy Kevin Smith praising anything Affleck related, Chris Terrio messing up scripts and now that they will replace Affleck, they’ll bring one of his buddies? Really, WB? Haven’t you learnt anything?
He can learn it not that hard actually
There will only be one Batman and his name is Christian Bale
Exactly!
Bring back Bale or shut the hell up
Bring back Bale or shut the hell up
It really isn’t Affleck’s fault his movies have sucked. It’s absolutely Zack Snyder who hasn’t had a good movie since Watchmen.
John Hamm would be perfect as the new 007. Batman? Not sure.
O melhor ator para Batman é o Pablo. ? ? ?
O melhor ator para Batman é o Pablo. ? ? ?
Fuck no
It’s happening get over it motherfucker
Shut the fuck up and go to your marvel pages
No!
Karl Urban.
Eeeeeek! Where did they find this guy? From the awful Affleck to that? How much more they’re going to ruin Batman?! WB isn’t tired of spending millions of dollars advertizing such actors to persuade people to see them? Bring back Bale: just the news of that will make people forget the JL fiasco and will be huge advertize. Everything else is wasted money and effort: people are disappointed and need this to return.
Age is the issue sadly
Michon Jordan
…it’s too late to change now. Lol #MarvelForever
Waseem Kiyara
No. No he doesn’t.
Too old
Karim Yehia Radwan
I nominate Karl urban’
No
Changing Ben Affleck as Batman is like changing Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and changing Henry Cavill as Superman.
Who cares! As long as we get another Batman movieappearance. :-D
Affleck is an idiot if he steps down from this iconic role and WB is a moronic company of they chose to replaced him. Then again, WB is a moronic company
Does it honestly matter, I’ve never had a issue with the acting in any of the latest batmans, maybe if they focus on a decent script and a story that flows well.
NOW we’re talking!!!
I wish that he wouldn’t step down as personally.
Bring back Bale!.. the mountain of a guy with the voice of my greatgrandfather..
John Brolin