It says something that people are more willing to talk to Ben Affleck about The Batman, a film that doesn’t even have a production start date set, let alone a release date yet, than talking about any other DC Extended Universe film. The interest is so high that even a three-month old interview makes news today.
While on the publicity trail for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Ben Affleck spoke with Cines Argentinos. The group asked him what his take on The Batman would entail:
I think what I would do, what I probably would do, is in some ways what Zack [Snyder] did with this movie, which is to borrow certain things from the great comic books, but create an original story around it because I wouldn’t want the fans to already know the story and be familiar, but I would borrow, steal, great things that have been done before in the comics.
The words “do what Zack Snyder did” strikes the same type of concern and horror as if he said “I left the baby on top of the car wen I pulled out of the driveway”. However, elements from the comics have always been a part of the film experience, from Ra’s Al Ghul’s part of Batman Begins to Bane breaking Bruce Wayne’s back in The Dark Knight Rises. The way to do it so that it will work is to present it as part cohesive narrative and not as a patchwork quilt of favorite moments from the comics.
As I said, there is no release date for The Batman, but the character will appear next in August’s Suicide Squad.
