Almost two years to the day after he stepped down as director, it was announced this week that Ben Affleck will not be donning the cape and cowl for Warner Bros. and DC Films’ The Batman, with director Matt Reeves set to introduce a new, younger incarnation of the Dark Knight for the long-gestating solo movie.
While this announcement finally laid to rest all of the speculation surrounding Affleck’s continued involvement with the DCEU movie, attention now turns to who’ll be cast as his successor – and if the bookmakers’ odds are any indication, it may be someone who already has a past connection to the role.
According to odds from bookmaker BoyleSports, The Lone Ranger and Call Me By Your Name star Armie Hammer is the 7/2 favourite to play the next Batman, followed by Jake Gyllenhaal (Velvet Buzzsaw) at 11/2, Jon Hamm (Mad Men) at 13/2, Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther) at 8/1 and Ben Barnes (The Punisher) at 8/1.
SEE ALSO: 8 Actors Who Could Replace Ben Affleck in The Batman
As it happens, Hammer was previously cast as Batman way back in 2007 for Mad Max director George Miller’s Justice League: Mortal – a project which made it as far as pre-production before Warner Bros. pulled the plug due to financial concerns.
Hammer recently reflected on his time attached to Justice League: Mortal, stating that he wanted to embrace the character’s darkness, but was ultimately relieved he never got to portray the Caped Crusader as “I wouldn’t want to watch a 19-year-old Batman.”
Here’s the full list of odds from BoyleSports, via CBM…
7/2 Armie Hammer
11/2 Jake Gyllenhaal
13/2 Jon Hamm
8/1 Michael B. Jordan
8/1 Ben Barnes
9/1 John Krasinski
10/1 Jamie Dornan
16/1 Josh Brolin
16/1 Matthew Goode
16/1 Chris Pratt
16/1 Michael Fassbender
16/1 Chris Pine
18/1 Ryan Gosling
33/1 Leonardo DiCaprio
33/1 Idris Elba
50/1 Keanu Reeves
50/1 Daniel Craig
50/1 Colin Farrell
50/1 Tom Hardy
50/1 Chris Evans
100/1 Cillian Murphy
100/1 Ewan McGregor
100/1 Henry Cavill
100/1 Hugh Jackman
Who do you want to see as the next Batman? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or tweet us @FlickeringMyth…
Originally published February 2, 2019. Updated November 21, 2019.
