Another rumor is here to add fuel to the fire about Ben Affleck leaving the Batman role behind, and this time it supports earlier stories about Jake Gyllenhaal taking on the mantle.
The story comes from Revenge of the Fans, who says Warner Bros. is “sour on Ben Affleck”, and that assuming he leaves, “Jake is in”. This would be an interesting and possibly risky move because the site continues to claim that Matt Reeves’ upcoming Batman film will indeed be set in the DCEU. This means whatever Reeves does will still be canon with the other DC films, and Gyllenhaal will forever replace Affleck.
It would certainly be poetic if Gyllenhaal managed to gain the role; he tried for it previously against Christian Bale during auditions for Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. Perhaps Gyllenhaal will have the last laugh after all, especially if the DCEU continues to expand as planned. We could be seeing quite a bit of Gyllenhaal as Batman.
It’s interesting, though, because Affleck had some positive things to say just last month about his future playing the character:
“I like this version of Batman a lot. It was a lot to carry around the danger of being angry and resentful of Superman the whole time, which led to a darker tone. And with this one, Batman is not a Joker and is not as funny, but is hilarious, as the straight man to Flash and other people. That’s a nice dynamic to get to play off of somebody and have a little bit more irony and have a little bit more self-awareness, a little bit more fun with the movie. That was great.”
Even commenting on the solo film:
“For me, it’s interesting, and I always evaluate this stuff on the merit of the material. I want to direct a Batman movie, and I never got a script that I was happy with, so they are starting over and writing another script. And right now, I think a lot of different possibilities I think for the way the DC Universe could go, and I will just follow my interests in pursing that. And I know that I love working with this group of people, and it was a real joy for me to make this movie.”
Until then, however, we have James Wan’s Aquaman film to look forward to.
Aquaman hits theaters December 21, 2018.
How would you feel about actor Jake Gyllenhaal taking over the role of Batman? Would you like to see him have a chance, or would you like more Ben Affleck? Let us know in the comments section down below!