The Last Duel Could've Featured A Matt Damon/Ben Affleck Kiss, But Ridley Scott Cut It

You've heard of Batfleck and Bennifer, but what about Mattfleck? Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are set to reunite onscreen this Friday in Ridley Scott's "The Last Duel," and in another life, it seems we could have seen their characters kissing.

Affleck and Damon go back a long way, having first met and studied drama together back in high school. Though they appeared in other films together pre-1997, they had their big breakout that year in "Good Will Hunting," which they starred in and co-wrote and which earned them both an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. They also co-starred as the fallen angels Bartleby and Loki in Kevin Smith's "Dogma" in 1999, years before Damon ever cameoed as an Asgardian actor playing Loki in "Thor: Ragnarok.

Over the years, they've remained friends and collaborated on other projects, most notably HBO's "Project Greenlight" documentary series. In "The Last Duel," they share screenwriting credits again (this time, with Nicole Holofcener) and are acting opposite each other again, with mullets and bowl cuts. Affleck plays Count Pierre d'Alençon in the movie, while Damon plays Jean de Carrouges, the husband of Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer), who accuses Adam Driver's character, Jacques Le Gris, of raping her. This instigates the last sanctioned duel to the death in French history.

Entertainment Weekly reports that there was a scene in the movie where Damon's character greets Affleck with a ceremonial kiss on the mouth. According to Affleck, Scott "thought it would be distracting, and his instincts are pretty good," so the scene was excised before they ever filmed it.

As EW notes, Damon landed himself in hot water over the summer when he appeared to admit that he had only recent stopped using the "f-slur for homosexual." In an interview with the Sunday Times (by way of Variety), he recalled hearing it on the streets of Boston when he was young before he knew what it meant. He was quoted as saying:

"The word that my daughter calls the 'f-slur for a homosexual' was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application. I made a joke, months ago, and got a treatise from my daughter. She left the table. I said, 'Come on, that's a joke! I say it in the movie 'Stuck on You!' '"

Needless to say, people didn't like them apples. As Damon's comments began trending on social media, he issued a statement clarifying, "I have never called anyone 'f****t' in my personal life and this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening. I do not use slurs of any kind." His statement ended with the words, "I stand with the LGBTQ+ community," but if you're looking for him to lock lips with Affleck and prove that, you won't see it in "The Last Duel."

"The Last Duel" comes exclusively to theaters on October 15, 2021.