We'll be saying goodbye to Ben Affleck's Batman soon, as The Flash film approaches release. I'll be sad to see him go, as unlike most I rather enjoyed Affleck's Batman. Sure, I had some issues, but overall enjoyed his performance. With that being said, The Batman has quickly risen to become my favorite film of all time, so I suppose I can't be too sad. More interesting is the Ben Affleck film we'll never get to see, the one set to feature Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke. It's been described as a horror film, where Slade Wilson systematically destroys Bruce Wayne's life. Now we also know that it was more action-oriented thanks to The Batman director Matt Reeves. He spoke with Jeff Goldsmith on his podcast, which is where they discussed the Ben Affleck Batman film. He admits he didn't connect with it - but other than that, had nothing but positive things to say.

"The movie was originally going to be directed by Ben Affleck, and the script they sent me had been written by Ben but rewritten by another very talented writer, and when I read it, I was like, 'Oh, I get it. It was a standalone Batman film that was centered on Ben's version of the character, but it was more action-driven than what I felt I could do. I didn't connect to the movie-in terms of me as a filmmaker. It was very James Bond-ian; it was filled with a lot of set pieces. It could have been a very exciting movie for someone else to do, but it wasn't for me to do." before going on to add, Interestingly, I think Ben wasn't so sure he wanted to do it because he ultimately stepped away from doing Batman all together ... Probably because of the choices in his life at that time and what he wanted to do."

It's sad that we'll never get to see this film, but I'm content since we got The Batman out of it. And we'll get to give Affleck's Batman a proper goodbye next year when The Flash sprints into theatres. That movie will have two amazing Batmen, as Michael Keaton will be appearing as well. In terms of The Batman, we're expecting two spin-off series on HBO Max in the future. Most recently The Batman 2 was also officially announced, so Robert Pattinson isn't quite done with the Dark Knight yet!

The Flash hits theatres on June 23, 2023.

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