Ben Affleck’s Scrapped Batman Movie Was 'The Game' With Sword Fights
In history’s greatest resurrection since The New Testament, or maybe Weekend at Bernie’s II, Ben Affleck’s Batman (or at least his Bruce Wayne) is returning to the big screen in the upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Either that or Affleck just popped by the Aquaman set in a fancy suit for a quick Momoa cuddle.
Of course, this news comes after Affleck’s repeated claims that he wouldn’t be reprising the role of Batman beyond The Flash. But now that doesn’t seem to be the case, either because that movie will probably end up being tossed into some sort of bottomless pit or because Ben Affleck is just a big liar, lest we forget the saga of his giant back tattoo.
Don’t expect Affleck’s canceled solo Batman movie to spring back to life any time soon, though. For starters, while popping by an Aquaman movie in a Mercedes is one thing, strapping on a full batsuit (and presumably, bat catheter) is another. And also, Affleck’s The Batman basically became Matt Reeves' recent The Batman. Reeves has claimed in interviews that the two projects were very different, stressing that the script co-written by Affleck for him to star in was “action-driven” and “James Bondi-ain.”
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Although comments made by actor Joe Manganiello make it sound like the two movies may have been more similar than Reeves has suggested. Sure there are reports that Affleck’s The Batman would have featured full-on sword fights with the villainous Deathstroke, played by Manganiello (who played the role briefly in a post-credit scene from Zack Snyder’s Justice League).
But while Reeves’ movie was unsubtly influenced by David Fincher’s Se7en (pronounced se-seven-en), according to Manganiello, Affleck’s story was similar to another Fincher movie, The Game, and would have found Deathstroke “dismantling Bruce’s life from the inside out.”
Which, except for the fact that he didn’t know about Batman’s secret identity, sounds not unlike The Riddler’s plans for Bruce in The Batman. So while the recent Affleck news doesn’t mean that we’re going to get his Batman movie any time soon, maybe we’ll get a director’s cut of Aquaman 2 where Bruce launches into a lengthy monologue describing the events of this story in excruciating detail.
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Thumbnail: Warner Bros.
