Ben Affleck breaks his silence about being cast as Batman and while he couldn’t reveal much he did say that this version won’t be the same as we saw with Christian Bale…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Follow on Twitter @DamonMartin
Ben Affleck is going to be Batman.
Now that the initial wave of reactions has died down since the announcement was made in late August, Affleck is starting to venture out into the public spotlight again to help promote his current film ‘Runner, Runner‘ co-starring Justin Timberlake.
On Monday he appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with there subject of Batman finally came up and Affleck handled it with comedy and grace.
“I’m so excited,” Affleck said. “They called me up and said ‘do you want to do this?’ and I thought I’m not 25 are you sure about this? They said come down we want to show you what we’re doing. It was incredible.”
Right away once Affleck visited with director Zack Snyder and the team at Warner Bros. putting together the film serving as the sequel to 2013’s Man of Steel, he was convinced this was a part he wanted to take. Part of the reason he wanted to play the part was because Snyder told him the story behind his version of Batman, and how this would not be a continuation or recasting of the version of the role that Christian Bale played in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.
“He can’t do what Christian (Bale) did, those movies are amazing, but he wants to do something different but still in keeping with that,” Affleck said. “I said this is a brilliant way to do this and I really know how to hook into this.”
The current information available about the new film (which isn’t much right now) is that the Batman that will appear in Man of Steel 2 will be an older, darker and more battle weary version of the Caped Crusader. While the age difference is off, the idea floating around is that Snyder will capture some elements of Batman from the classic 1980’s graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.
Once Affleck saw what Snyder was doing with the part, he signed on immediately and awaited the announcement to be made. The studio had to prepare him first, however, for what was about to happen next.
Movies fans and comic book movie fans in particular have a very set idea about who should or should not be cast in a certain role, and everybody becomes an instant casting director. When Heath Ledger was cast as The Joker in The Dark Knight the internet exploded with a firestorm of negative reactions to the news. Obviously what happened in the end was Ledger put on an Academy Award winning performance, and the film stands as arguably the greatest comic book movie ever made.
So it’s really a game of judge slowly with any casting news, but the studio wanted to warn Affleck what was about to happen when the announced his role.
“I said okay I want to do it, and the people from the studio were like ‘we’re thrilled, we’re so excited’ and they said we want to talk to you because people go through this process and it can be trying,” Affleck explained. “I said what do you mean? They said we want to show you some reactions for some of the past people that have been cast have gotten on the internet and stuff.”
Needless to say some of the reactions were less than flattering for past actors and actresses cast in similar roles, but Affleck says he’s handled much worse so he let the announcement fly and immediately logged online to see how things were going. He found the first story about the casting online, scrolled to the bottom of the page and the initial comment just said “Noooooo!!!!”. At that point with a laugh Affleck says he was done reading comments on the internet about his casting.
All jokes aside, Affleck is embracing the role as Batman and he promises fans that once they start to get the idea of what Snyder is doing with the Man of Steel sequel they will be equally impressed. From the sound of Affleck’s statement, the first major appearance for the cast of Man of Steel 2 would be at next year’s San Diego Comic Con.
Once some footage arrives and a little more of the story is revealed, Affleck has no doubt that fans will get behind Batman, Superman and the entire project.
“Part of it is when you see the material and it’s a very hard thing to describe without giving away the story and giving away what it is, but I really feel like I have a lot of opportunities now which is really great. This is something that’s really exciting,” Affleck said.
Affleck still has some ongoing projects that will keep him busy through the end of the year before filming for Man of Steel 2 picks up in early 2014 with most of the shooting schedule taking place in Detroit.
Watch the entire interview with Affleck from Late Night below:
[youtube width=”600″ height=”464″ video_id=”m8BaVKUoUGo”]
