During Warner Bros.' Aquaman presentation at CinemaCon, Jason Momoa declared LEGO Batman Movie star Will Arnett the best Batman ever, ignoring his Justice League co-star Ben Affleck. Many men have donned the Caped Crusader's cowl since Adam West first brought the character to life on television in the original 1960s Batman series. Michael Keaton took the role when Batman finally made his way to movie screens in 1989, and since then a parade of actors has tried their hand at playing the darkest of all superheroes.
Val Kilmer took over for Keaton in Tim Burton's third Batman film, then stepped aside in favor of George Clooney, who labored through arguably the worst movie in franchise history, Joel Schumacher's Batman and Robin. After a brief hiatus, Batman returned with a vengeance in the person of Christian Bale for Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. When Zack Snyder took over to launch the DCEU proper, Affleck stepped into the role. So which of the above men did the best job of playing Batman?
Related: Every Adaptation of Batman, Ranked
Jason Momoa knows a thing or two about Batman, having starred alongside Affleck's version of the character in Justice League. And Tuesday at Warner Bros.' CinemaCon presentation, Momoa weighed in with his opinion on who did the best job playing Batman - and he picked none of the live-action Batman actors listed above. According to Momoa, LEGO Batman Movie voice actor Will Arnett is actually the best Batman. As it turns out, Arnett was on-stage acting as moderator when Momoa made his declaration. "You're the best f--king Batman," Momoa told Arnett.
It's possible Momoa was just clowning around with Arnett when he made his pick, or maybe trying to win brownie points with the moderator. But then again, is the pick such an outlandish one? Momoa certainly would not be alone in favoring the light-hearted LEGO Batman version of the Caped Crusader over the character's various live-action cinematic incarnations. It all depends on how you like your Batman: silly and fun (and in LEGO form) or dark and brooding. And then there's George Clooney's Batman, who is neither fun nor brooding, but only ridiculous.
One has to wonder how Momoa's Justice League co-star will feel when he finds out Momoa prefers Arnett's Batman to his. Could there be a little tension on the set the next time Affleck and Momoa team up? Assuming Affleck sticks around to play Batman in any hypothetical future Justice League movies, of course. In the meantime, Momoa and the rest of the Aquaman cast continue gearing up the hype machine for the standalone movie, the next DCEU film on the slate. After Aquaman's intro in Justice League, fans will be curious to see where director James Wan takes the character in his showcase film.
Another piece of Aquaman news also emerged from CinemaCon in the form of a description of some trailer footage shown to the assembled crowd. The rest of the public eagerly awaits the release of that first trailer.
