It was a sad day for the entire DC Fandom when it was announced that Ben Affleck will be stepping down as our Bruce Wayne. After months of speculations and rumours, Affleck took to twitter to express his excitement for how Matt Reeves takes this franchise forward. Initially, He was supposed to write, direct and star in the movie. Later he announced that Reeves will be coming out with a fresh script.
Let’s get one thing straight, no matter the how the movies turned out to be, Batfleck was an amazing Bruce Wayne/Batman. Zack Snyder brought a broken, much older and experienced vigilante to life which is a fresh take on the origin story we’re all familiar with. In a nutshell, it was a wasted opportunity.
There was so much that could have been done to bring Justice to his character if they’d have planned everything well, and not rushed their movies. Batman v Superman served as a setup to Suicide Squad and Justice League. After the mixed response it received, WB completely changed the narrative of both of the following films. If only they came up with something better than ‘Save Martha’
The film also established a dead robin arc, a Joker arc and a whole Arkham Asylum style setup for the solo Batman film. WB just kept interfering and this is the result. Ben Affleck was the ideal Bruce Wayne. He was old, experienced and had his playboy vibe as well. We won’t even get to see him and Jared Leto’s Joker crossover (or any of the Suicide Squad villains for that matter)
Zack Snyder’s vision was completely tarnished, but can we help it?
This article is just a thank you to Affleck, for portraying the iconic character in the best way possible. It’s hard to see him go, but Matt Reeves is a fantastic director with his own vision as well. We just hope the DCEU (which is currently being moderately rebooted) gets back on track and we get films which are not cash grabs, but are serving justice to our beloved characters.
WB has announced the final slate for their confirmed releases. Shazam comes out on April 5 2019, Birds of Prey February 7 2020, Wonder Woman 84 June 5 2020, ‘The Batman’ June 25 2021, Suicide Squad reboot August 6 2021 and The Flash sometime around 2021 as well.
The motive of this entire slate is to make self-contained solo movies that are director centric and not have them crossover anytime soon, or ever. Let’s pray it’s a move for the best and we can rejoice these upcoming movies.