Long Before Batman & Daredevil, Ben Affleck’s First Superhero Role Saw Him Replacing Harrison Ford

Ben Affleck is no stranger to heroic action movies, especially those with all-star casts. While the actor is perhaps better known today for his role as Batman in the Snyderverse — a role he’s recently opened up about, calling the reshoots for Justice League the low point of his career — from 2016 to 2023, and for his portrayal of Matt Murdock / Daredevil in the 2003 film, they were hardly the first times Affleck saved the world on screen. 

In 2001, he was one of the stars of Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor, and in 2002, the year before Daredevil, he stepped into a different franchise with large shoes to fill — Jack Ryan. As part of the larger Jack Ryan franchise, Ben Affleck starred in The Sum of All Fears, alongside other future superhero actors. Affleck acted alongside Morgan Freeman — Lucius Fox in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Batman trilogy — and Liev Schreiber — who’s infamous for playing Sabretooth in the much-hated X-Men Origins: Wolverine. 

The Sum of All Fears has Affleck as a much younger Jack Ryan, new to the CIA and more comfortable being an analyst writing up reports than an action hero. The prequel angle explained the actor change, which made Affleck the third actor to play the titular character. The previous films in the franchise starred Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October) and Harrison Ford (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger) as Jack Ryan. 

Harrison Ford initially signed on to The Sum of All Fears, having announced the film in October 1999 and being active in the script’s development. Despite multiple drafts from writer Akiva Goldsman, Ford and then-director Philip Noyce were unable to reconcile their issues with it, causing both Ford and Noyce to leave the project. The Sum of All Fears got a new director in Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams), a finalized script from Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne, and a new Ryan in Ben Affleck. Ford even gave his blessing for Affleck to take the role. 

Profitable but Not Beloved

From its conception, The Sum of All Fears had its share of challenges. Tom Clancy was hesitant to continue selling the rights to his books, following his dissatisfaction with Patriot Games’ film adaptation. Paramount Pictures then had to renew negotiations with Clancy, offering a sizable amount of money to get the deal done. 

Clancy’s agreement, though, did not mean he was pleased with all the changes made for the film adaptation. The antagonists in Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears novel were originally Arab nationalists, a type of villain that was quickly becoming an overdone cliche in Hollywood, even before The Sum of All Fears wrapped filming in June 2001. Instead, writer Daniel Pyne opted to change the antagonists to neo-Nazis, inspired by the political activity going on in European countries such as Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. For Pyne, it allowed for a villain that could be scary but universal, preventing the film from alienating a profitable consumer base. 

During the film’s 2002 opening weekend, The Sum of All Fears earned $31.1 million, beating both Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. By the end of its run, it had easily recouped its $68 million production costs and had proved profitable. However, tickets sold didn’t translate to favorable reviews. 

Critics had praised Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford in the role for their oozing authority. The same quality didn’t come as easily to Ben Affleck. Peter Travers, a movie critic for People and Rolling Stone, felt that Affleck’s performance only emphasized the gap between him and Harrison Ford. The script likely didn’t do Affleck any favors — it’s hard to embody authority when Jack Ryan doesn’t have it in this movie, given how it takes place earlier in the character’s history. Affleck’s Ryan also failed to measure up when compared to his co-star Morgan Freeman’s performance as William Cabot. 

A Poor History with Superhero Roles

While calling Jack Ryan a superhero may be a little bit of a stretch, there seems to be a similar effect on the Jack Ryan franchise as on the superhero ones that Affleck would go on to star in. While the Jack Ryan franchise steadily put out movies despite creative differences in the early 1990s, that all stopped with The Sum of All Fears. An attempt to revive the franchise would take over a decade, occurring in 2014 with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. With Affleck no longer attached to the project, John Krasinski played the titular role.  While it was intended to launch a film franchise, it ended up shifting to television with Jack Ryan, which ran on Prime Video from 2018 to 2023. The series was then followed by the Jack Ryan: Ghost War film in 2026. 

While the 2003 Daredevil film was a hit, the related film Elektra was not. More notably, when audiences think of live-action Daredevil, it is Charlie Cox who is better known for the role, given Daredevil, which ran from 2015 to 2018, and Daredevil: Born Again, which premiered on Disney+ in 2025. 

Were the critics too harsh on Affleck’s performance in The Sum of All Fears? Convince us of your take in the comments below!

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