Before we got Matt Reeves’ The Batman, Ben Affleck was set to direct and star in his own Batman film. We know that Affleck’s solo film was eventually scrapped, and Reeves takes the time to talk about how he got the torch to make his own Batman movie.
Talking to the Toronto Sun, Reeves explains that he was able to take on the project after Affleck decided to stop playing Batman (probably because of his experience with Justice League):
“Ben was re-evaluating what he wanted to do in his life… When he decided he didn’t want to be Batman anymore, I said, ‘I really want to hold on to this idea that this isn’t going to be a part of the DCEU and now we can create a new Batman.’ That’s kind of how it evolved to this place.”
With Batman being such a huge property, there is definitely a lot of pressure to deliver a good movie; not just something that fans will like, but something that is commercially successful so that the studio will be happy.
When it comes to starting a new timeline from the ground-up, Reeves explains:
“I felt to do a standalone Batman film for the first time in 10 years, I needed to make sure that Batman was at the center and that we weren’t trying to keep all these other planes up in the air… Doing a Batman film is daunting; you are taking on some great history and there are some really great Batman films. So I felt like that would have been too much. Thankfully, [Warner Bros.] said I could do that.”
Reviews for The Batman are already coming out, but we’ve yet to get the opinion of the general public. Hopefully we manage to get more ‘Battinson’ in the future, but I also want to know how the Batman in the main DCEU timeline is going to continue.
Catch The Batman when it hits theaters on March 4.
