According to the actor, Ben Affleck’s role as Batman in The Flash may not be as significant as many people had hoped, disappointing some people.
The DCEU has been struggling for a long time to find its footing, and since 2017’s Justice League, key players like Ben Affleck’s Batman and Henry Cavill’s Superman have been out of the picture because of roadblocks.
One came back last year in Cavill’s Black Adam as Man of Steel, and the other will come back this summer in The Flash. But Affleck won’t be the only Batman in the movie. Michael Keaton will be back in the role he played in 1989.
This is likely to be Affleck’s last DC appearance since his already-filmed cameo in December’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has reportedly been cut. The Dark Knight is expected to be played by someone else in James Gunn’s DCU reboot.
The return of Ben Affleck as Batman will be short
Ben Affleck, who plays Batman in the DCEU, talked to The Hollywood Reporter about how his superhero roles had become “repetitive and less interesting” for him before discussing his upcoming role in The Flash.
Many people were disappointed when Ben Affleck said that, even though he thinks he “nailed” his role as Batman in the speedster epic, his part in the movie only lasts “five minutes.” This probably doesn’t give a good idea of how much screen time the actor had in The Flash, but it does point to a more minor role:
“The ‘Justice League’ experience, the fact that those stories became somewhat repetitive to me and less interesting. Yeah, I did finally figure out how to play that character [Batman], and I nailed it in ‘The Flash.’ For the five minutes I’m there, it’s really great.”
Affleck also said that “tone” is a big part of figuring out how to play a character. He then talked about how much he enjoyed his time in the DC universe, especially in his first movie with Zack Snyder:
“A lot of it’s just tone. You’ve got to figure out, what’s your version of the person? Who is the guy that fits what you can do? I tried to fit myself into a Batman. And by the way, I like a lot of the stuff we did, especially the first one [‘Batman v Superman’].”
The Flash trailer shows Affleck as Batman in two different scenes. The first is an action scene during the day and involves a Batcycle chase.
In the second, he’s Bruce Wayne and in an alley at night with Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen. He’s warning Barry about how dangerous time travel could be.
Many people on social media are upset by the news that Affleck will only have a small part in The Flash.