Ben Affleck Says The Door Is Closed On Batman

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League star Ben Affleck believes that the door is closed on his iteration of Batman. In an interview with the spiritual lifestyle website Beliefnet. In a video clip circulating online today, Affleck said that he’s less interested in doing big blockbusters than he is movies like his current film, The Way Back. Asked by the host, a self-confessed “life-long Batman fan,” whether there was any possibility of returning to the cape and cowl down the line, Affleck seemingly dismissed the notion pretty abruptly, implying (as most fans have guessed) that stepping away from The Batman was the end of his journey with the Dark Knight.

“Yeah. That’s not the kind of movie that — ” Affleck began, before pausing to rephrase.

“I had an opportunity to write and direct and star in a stand-alone Batman,” Affleck explained. “And it just happened at a point in my life where I just kind of lost interest in those stories. I’ll go see Robert’s, I think it’s gonna be great, he’s great, but this is the kind of story that I’m interested in telling now.”

People grow and change, and certainly his own fears about having a relapse into addiction if he stepped back into the scorching spotlight of big-budget comic book blockbusters are not unreasonable. It feels a little bit like what his character, Holden McNeil, said in the recent Kevin Smith film Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. In it, Affleck reprised his 1997 role from Chasing Amy and discussed the way that having a child had changed his mindset and priorities.

“I used to think life was all about me; I was the hero of my own story,” Holden said in the film. “Bruce Wayne in one life-long issue of Detective Comics, so to speak. Then that kid came along and suddenly you realize, you’re not Bruce Wayne anymore. You’re Thomas Wayne…or Bruce Wayne’s mom, whose name escapes me.”

Affleck has previously praised new The Batman lead Robert Pattinson, and expressed that he had just “lost his passion” for the role. He did, however, chime in to say that he believes Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of Justice League — the famed “Snyder Cut” — should be available to audiences.

Affleck is bouncing back with The Way Back, a new drama in theaters on March 6, which brings him back together with The Accountant director Gavin O’Connor.