Superman may be about to make a triumphant return in Justice League, but it looks like another member may be bowing out. A recent report suggests that Warner Bros. are wanting to get rid of Ben Affleck as Batman, creating a vast rift at the center of the DCEU less than 24 hours ahead of their big SDDC panel.
The original story doesn't have much of detail beyond the basic headline, but THR's source stated "the studio is working on plans to usher out Affleck’s Batman — gracefully, addressing the change in some shape or form". The way they tell it, this may be before Matt Reeves' The Batman arrives. Reeves has stated previously he would keep Affleck on board, but if a higher-level choice was made he may have to adjust plans. The implication certainly is that Justice League will be the final, complete Affleck Bat-flick.
Should this wind up true, it will be the end of a protracted break of the once-and-always controversial Batfleck from the franchise. The press tours for The Accountant and Live By Night were dominated by reports of The Batman's script problems, and shortly afterward he left the director's chair. Then it emerged new director Reeves was scrapping the original screenplay and story to start afresh. Through all this, rumors he was sick of playing Bruce Wayne persisted.
The how and why of this - as well as which party is leading the break-up - will come once we have more information, but for now the question is how exactly will WB do it? How do you make the departure of an essential actor in any way "graceful"? Let's discuss.
Option 1: A Straight-Up, Unremarked Recast
The simplest (read: laziest) solution would be a straight-up recasting of Bruce Wayne in the DCEU, replacing Affleck in The Batman onwards with a new actor of similar age and style. Like a new James Bond, the change wouldn't be properly commented on and taken as the same character.
This isn't totally out of the question and just a couple of decades ago would have felt normal. After all, this exact thing happened in the 1990s with Val Kilmer replacing Michael Keaton in Batman Forever (and George Clooney subsequently subbing in for Batman & Robin), but that was a different era of superhero movies where overarching continuity was a tertiary concern (Bruce Wayne wasn't the only major switch-up between the Burton and Schumacher era). And while more recently Marvel have done similar things with the likes of Bruce Banner and War Machine, neither are quite on the level of Batman and those were both at the start of the MCU. In the five years since Mark Ruffalo took over Hulk's purple pants from Edward Norton the idea of canon has become more stringent.
Considering the DCEU's not had any such issues yet, it would be a particularly strange move. This is doubly so as the problems aren't necessarily just with Affleck. Yes, there's a clear lethargy on his part and he's been gradually distancing himself over the past year, but for all the praise of Batman v Superman's warehouse sequence the franchise's situation would seem to be a bit shakier. So what in-universe options are there for a "recast"?
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Option 2: Retire (Or Kill) The Batman
If we're going to be narratively addressing the Batman situation as Ben Affleck departs, the question changes a little. You're essentially writing Bruce Wayne out of the story, which involves one of two things: you have him retire or you kill him. While they both sound like different ideas, if we're getting rid of Affleck the result is the same - Bruce Wayne is no longer part of the DCEU.
Ending Batman would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. Even when Christopher Nolan wrapped up The Dark Knight Trilogy with Batman believed dead and Bruce Wayne in hiding, it was done with the explicit understanding that the character could return to the big screen in a different form down the line - as indeed he did. Now we're four movies deep into a new shared universe that is set to run at least to the end of the decade and no doubt planned to go further, this essentially means Bats is being written out early on.
That's a brave, bold move and one that honestly seems unlikely. Batman is the second most money-spinning superhero after Spider-Man, so to completely scrap him would only hurt WB's bottom line.
However, there is scope from a narrative level. Already, with Justice League bringing in three fresh heroes primed for solo movies, Shazam following Aquaman and Wonder Woman proving such an unprecidented success, the DCEU is beginning to show signs the Batman dependency that has dominated DC's output for decades may be misplaced. Just last month we suggested that Wonder Woman should lead the franchise going forward, and her film now closing in on BvS' global take shows that wouldn't be too bad a shout. And, as DC are actively working on various Batman-related spinoffs - Nightwing, Batgirl, Gotham City Sirens, and Joker vs. Harley - it's not like the Gotham wing of the world will be underserved. All of which brings us to another point.
Option 3: Replace The Batman
On screen, only Bruce Wayne has been the Batman. The single time an alternative has been suggested is at the end of The Dark Knight Rises when John "Robin" Blake entered the Batcave in the very final scene to take up some version of the mantle. There it was essentially a coda, but does that narrative thrust have to be an ending tease? In the comics, countless other heroes have taken the Batman mantle, most notably Jean-Paul Valley after the Bane incident in Knightfall, Dick Grayson following that, and most other Robin's in various alt-futures. There's definitely grounding to have a new character inherit the mantle.
The question of who depends how the DCEU continues to expand. Grayson is surely tied up in Nightwing and Jason Todd is presumably dead going by the costume in the Batcave. That leaves Tim Drake and Damian Wayne if we're saying a Batman continuation, but there's plenty of other options. The ultimate point is that is we're talking about a "graceful" departure, and something that deals with legacy and has the on-screen Batfleck handing the mantle over to his successor is one of the best ways to do it.
Option 4: Flashpoint (Or Similar Universe Reboot)
One logical in-universe way to keep the Wayne vintage of Batman while allowing for a recast would be to take another leaf out of the DC Comics pantheon and bring in some continuity meddling. Fans have long been keen for a Crisis-style event and there'd be a purpose for one at this point. In print occurring whenever DC writers wanted to clear out the convoluted canon, there's enough confusion and complications in the DCEU to argue one now; keep the things that work (Wonder Woman) and ditch those that don't (in this case, Batfleck). The obvious candidate would be Flashpoint, a major recent event that's already informed The Flash CW series.
You can basically reset the series after a half-dozen films, keeping part of the canon but also removing and recasting as appropriate. Of course, the problems are immediately obvious - it's piling on more convolutions to try and fix things, which may bring back some burned fans but would likely be off-putting to casual audiences; the exact problem DC's had in print with all these events. And when it comes to Affleck, well, reshuffling the entire deck is hardly "graceful".
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Truth be told, there's no easy way to get Ben Affleck out of the DCEU. Batman is just too important and the actor too embedded by this point; after appearances in BvS, Suicide Squad and Justice League it's going to feel like a course correct no matter what they do. The trick is to do it delicately; and when you're dealing with a mega franchise as subject to debate as the DCEU, that's tricky. We don't envy what Warner Bros. have ahead of them.
