Ben Affleck Knows Exactly What Went Wrong With His Batman Movies

Few castings in the history of superhero cinema can rival that of Ben Affleck as Batman, just in terms of sheer shock value alone. It's hard to remember now, but back in 2013 when it was announced that Affleck would star as Batman in Zack Snyder's "Batman v Superman" (before the "Dawn of Justice" part came in), it set the internet ablaze. To this day, there are those who love Affleck's older, grizzled take on the Dark Knight, and those who decidedly don't. What is impossible to argue is that the experience most certainly did not go smoothly. Affleck, for his part, seems to know precisely why.

In a recent in-depth interview with GQ, the Oscar-winning director behind films like "Argo" and "Air" was asked about what went wrong with his run as Batman in the DCEU, or the Snyderverse as it became known amongst fans. Affleck never got a solo movie, though he was supposed to direct a version of "The Batman" featuring Deathstroke as the villain, and the movies he was in were intensely divisive. Despite that, he was very complimentary of the early parts of his experience:

"I had a really good time. I loved doing the Batman movie. I loved Batman v Superman. And I liked my brief stints on The Flash that I did and when I got to work with Viola Davis on Suicide Squad for a day or two. In terms of creatively, I really think that I like the idea and the ambition that I had for it, which was of the sort of older, broken, damaged Bruce Wayne. And it was something we really went for in the first movie."

As Affleck points out, Snyder's whole idea was to have an older Batman in his mid-40s in "Batman v Superman," as opposed to one who was just starting out. Despite the mixed response to "BvS," Affleck was complimentary of Snyder and the experience. Unfortunately, when it came time for "Justice League," things changed.

The production of 2017's "Justice League" was famously troubled, and the movie became a box office disaster. Ultimately, the film's failure led to the downfall of the DCEU as we knew it. Snyder eventually left the project, with Joss Whedon ("The Avengers") coming in to oversee heavy reshoots and rewrites. Fans began loudly calling to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, with Snyder actively campaigning for years to have his version see the light of day. "Zack Snyder's Justice League" was eventually released, but it became a "give a dog a bone" situation. It was a mess.

So, what exactly went wrong behind the scenes? The divisive reaction to "BvS" got to Warner Bros. but "Justice League" was already barreling down the tracks, leading to a clash of vision. Affleck, speaking further in the same interview, explained how it all fell apart from his point of view:

"What happened was it started to skew too old for a big part of the audience. Like even my own son at the time was too scared to watch the movie. And so when I saw that, I was like, 'Oh s***, we have a problem.' Then I think that's when you had a filmmaker that wanted to continue down that road and a studio that wanted to recapture all the younger audience at cross purposes. Then you have two entities, two people, really wanting to do something different, and that is a really bad recipe."

Affleck has moved on and Matt Reeves directed 2022's "The Batman" starring Robert Pattinson in the lead role, which was a huge hit. Meanwhile, James Gunn and Peter Safran are rebooting the DC Universe and a new Batman will lead "The Brave and the Bold." Affleck may even end up directing a new DCU film at some point down the line, but his days as Batman are a thing of the past.

You can grab the DC 7-Film Collection on Blu-ray or 4K from Amazon.