We’ve been hearing more and more about Matt Reeves’ anticipated turn in Gotham City for The Batman and the latest piece of news from Deadline is two-fold. First off, Warner Bros. has given the film a release date of June 25th, 2021. Secondly, after so much back-and-forth on the rumour mill over the last two years, Ben Affleck is officially exiting the role as the Dark Knight for Reeves’ film.
Affleck first donned the cape and cowl for Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a role he reprised in Suicide Squad and Justice League. For a while he was set to direct The Batman and was working on a script with DC’s CCO Geoff Johns. He passed on directing, though, in January 2017 and Reeves came on board a month later. One reason Affleck won’t return as Batman is because Reeves’ film will focus on a younger Batman in his “detective mode” and feature several of Batman’s villainous Rogues Gallery. In his update, Reeves said he is currently working on another pass of the script before developing its concepts. A search is now underway for a new Batman.
Affleck, meanwhile, has a pretty busy schedule that also prevented him from returning as Batman. He is set to star in and produce Universal’s I Am Still Alive, an adaptation of Kate Alice Marshall’s novel, and WB’s Torrance from Gavin O’Connor. Affleck made a brief comment on his Twitter about how he is excited to see Reeves’ new take on the Dark Knight.
Excited for #TheBatman in Summer 2021 and to see @MattReevesLA vision come to life. https://t.co/GNgyJroMIO
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) January 31, 2019
What do you think of the end of the Batfleck era? Are you excited for Reeves’ younger take on Batman or would you like to have seen Affleck given a proper film of his own and to go out in style? Let us know in the comments below or on social media…
