Before Robert Pattinson got the role, the more experienced Ben Affleck was billed to star and direct The Batman for DC but had to leave.
No stranger to the superhero genre, Affleck had starred as the eponymous character in Marvel’s Daredevil and DC chose him to portray the scowling Batman.
Affleck bulked up, becoming the most physically imposing interpretation of the character and played him in two movies; Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League.
The two films received mixed reviews, not because of Affleck but owing to the dark portrayal by the director Zack Snyder. Despite that, Affleck was still attached and was set to direct and star in the solo adventure titled The Batman.
Suddenly, we all got wind of his departure and Pattinson was chosen to play a younger version of Bruce Wayne; one who would rely more on his detective skills than on just brute strength and gadgets.
Affleck gave his blessing to Pattinson by saying:
I think Robert’s a great actor, he’s going to do great.
He also went further to state why he left the project, citing his loss of passion.
We had a script. I liked the script, I wrote it with Geoff Johns, who I have a lot of respect for. It just so happened that I had done a couple of those movies, and I kind of lost my passion for it. You know what I mean? I kind of lost my passion for telling those stories, I got interested in telling stories more like this, and it just seemed like very clear to me that if it’s not the most important thing in the world to you, you’re not going to make a very good movie. The movie deserves to be made by someone whose dying to do it and can’t wait, and that wasn’t me at the time, so I moved on. – Ben Affleck – joblo.com
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