At virtually precisely this time final yr, information broke that Ben Affleck was coming again to Batman, reprising his position because the Caped Crusader in James Wan’s Aquaman 2, aka Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom. Affleck mentioned he was finished taking part in Batman in DC’s live-action films all the best way again in 2019 — he even had a send-off ceremony for his run because the character. Beforehand he performed Bruce Wayne in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Daybreak of Justice, then reprised the position in Justice League and cameoed within the David Ayer version of Suicide Squad.
However Jason Momoa took to Instagram in 2022 to disclose that Affleck would return as Batman within the Aquaman sequel, then scheduled for launch in March 2023. Quite a few scheduling adjustments for each Aquaman 2 and The Flash messed with that plan, and now The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that after a number of rounds of reshoots, Batman has been lower from Aquaman 2 totally.
That change is rather less stunning for individuals who did see The Flash when it lastly hit theaters in June, after being repeatedly bumped from its authentic July 2022 launch date. The Flash soft-resets DC’s cinematic universe, first letting Michael Keaton return to the Batman position, then bringing in one other visitor star for a comic book cameo. Releasing The Flash forward of Aquaman 2 created a continuity drawback: After Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) messes with the continuity of the universe, Ben Affleck is now not Batman in his world. So how would he return to play the position in Aquaman 2?
In line with the THR report, the Aquaman 2 Batman cameo initially featured Michael Keaton, who shot scenes for the position. When the discharge schedule modified and Aquaman 2 appeared like it might be launched first, Affleck was introduced in to reshoot that cameo. With director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran taking up the DC cinematic universe, the choice was reportedly made to chop the cameo altogether to keep away from confusion. “The most recent lower of the movie options neither model of the Darkish Knight, based on sources, as new DC heads James Gunn and Peter Safran don’t need to promise a film universe that won’t come to fruition, nor tie it down excessively to previous failures,” THR stories.
There’s nonetheless time for that to alter but once more — Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom presently isn’t scheduled for launch till December 2023. However a lot of the purpose of placing Gunn and Safran in cost was a brand new concentrate on robust management and decision-making in an organization that stored altering techniques round its films, veering from a shared-universe imaginative and prescient for its superheroes to a collection of unrelated one-offs. And Gunn has been notably vocal and particular about his plans for the brand new DC Universe. So we might have seen the final of Batfleck in spite of everything — at the least till Aquaman 2 hits house video, and the deleted scenes begin leaking on-line.
