Zack Snyder's original plan for Ben Affleck's Batman in the Justice League sequels would have inverted his character arc from the 2001 Michael Bay movie Pearl Harbor. Following the popular release of the Snyder cut of Justice League in March 2021, the director's unproduced Justice League 2 and Justice League 3 continue to be objects of great interest. Though Warner Bros. has declared that they will not move ahead with the sequels in the wake of Zack Snyder's Justice League, speculation and curiosity about the DCEU's "SnyderVerse" continue.
Affleck's Batman was one of the key players in Snyder's DC movies, and the director had a specific arc mapped out for the character. In Snyder's original plan for his Justice League movies, Affleck's Bruce Wayne and Amy Adams's Lois Lane would have conceived a child during the period when Superman was dead. Batman would also later be instrumental in undoing the Knightmare future in the Justice League sequels and would sacrifice himself in the final battle with Darkseid. His and Lois's son, Bruce Kent, would be raised by Superman and Lois and ultimately become the new Batman 20 years later. As it turns out, this story is shockingly close to Affleck's character arc from another movie — with a notable twist.
In Pearl Harbor, Affleck plays American pilot Rafe McCawley, who is shot down in his fighter plane while flying for the British during World War II. Believing Rafe to be dead, his best friend, Danny (Josh Hartnett), and his girlfriend, Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale), become intimate. Eventually, Rafe returns and finds them together, with Evelyn also pregnant with Danny's child, unbeknownst to him. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Rafe and Danny are deployed in the retaliatory Doolittle Raid. When Danny is shot during the mission, Rafe reveals Evelyn's pregnancy to him, and then Danny asks Rafe to look after them both. Rafe later marries Evelyn and raises Danny's son with her, naming him after his heroic father.
Did Snyder Intend For Ben Affleck's Batman To Reference Pearl Harbor?
While the whiteboard blueprint of Zack Snyder's Final Crisis-inspired Justice League sequels offers a good picture of what they would look like, it should be emphasized that there were a number of mostly unrevealed behind-the-scenes changes to them. Snyder has made clear that the Bruce Wayne and Lois Lane romance subplot was one of them. If the Justice League sequels were to be made today, Superman would be the biological father of Lois's child, but the boy would still go on to take up the role of Batman after Bruce's sacrifice.
Despite this plot device being dropped from Snyder's outline for the Justice League sequels, the parallels with the love triangle in Pearl Harbor are astonishing. Given Affleck's involvement in both, Snyder may have intended Batman and Lois's child conceived during Superman's death to be a direct, albeit flipped, homage to Michael Bay's movie. Much of the future of the DCEU remains open to speculation, including hints of more of Ben Affleck's Batman after The Flash. Still, as interest in the sequels to Zack Snyder's Justice League remains strong, it's fascinating to think about the Pearl Harbor connection that they were originally going to have.
