Long time Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy offers his thoughts on Ben Affleck as the new Dark Knight in addition to his feelings on Batman Vs. Superman.
While promoting the animated Batman: The Killing Joke movie – that is not without its own controversy and negative criticisms – Kevin Conroy offers the following to IGN.
Regarding Ben Affleck as Batman:
I love the fact that Warner Brothers have for the live-action Batman changed the casting so frequently. I think it’s really interesting to see different actors in the role, to see what they bring to the character. Everyone brings something different.
And there have been so many actors that have been wonderful. I liked Michael Keaton and I like what Ben Affleck is doing with it now. But they couldn’t be more different. It’s just the same with the Joker. When I started working with Mark Hammill I thought no one would ever nail the Joker better than Mark Hamill, and then I saw Heath Ledger, and he knocked it out of the park in just a different way.
While Kevin Conroy may be a fan of Ben Affleck, he notes he wasn’t all too thrilled with what went down in Batman Vs. Superman.
Personally I love the fact that Batman – in the stories I’ve done, and the way he’s been rendered by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, the people I’ve worked with most closely – he never kills anybody. He doesn’t cross that line. Batman is not a killer.
He puts them into Arkham Asylum, which is what is so brilliant about the Arkham Games – someone realized, ‘my god, all these incredible villains are all in the same institution – let’s get a video game in there’. It’s a brilliant idea. But the fact that Batman never kills anyone – I loved that fact.
In the most recent live action movie, that seems to have been a line that was crossed and it’s not one I’m particularly comfortable with.”
Check out video below that Kevin Conroy released a while back where he discusses who would win between Batman or Superman. Conroy goes into why Batman is such a relatable character and offers that Batman thinks his way out of things, which probably explains why Batman doesn’t need to kill — at least in Conroy’s mind. Stick around until the end to hear Conroy offer Batman’s perspective on the matter (and voice).
