Ben Affleck is again said to be back as Batman and attached to HBO Max, the recently launched streaming service from AT&T and WarnerMedia.
Back in May saw the rumor first surface from 4Chan about Ben Affleck back as Batman, and now the Lightcast and Cultured Nerd YouTube channels claim the same.
The new info claims that Ben Affleck has already signed a new contract to return as Batman and that Affleck will be involved in additional appearances related to HBO Max and Zack Snyder Justice League movies.
Update: Affleck is confirmed to return as Batman for The Flash movie.
Update #2: Affleck again rumored back as Batman for HBO Max.
Original article continues:
Ben Affleck signs new Batman contract
“Ben has indeed signed a new contract and he is coming back,” says Taylor Murphy of The Cultured Nerd. “The official announcement is expected to happen either at DC FanDome or during JusticeCon. One of the two, we’re going to get that announcement but it’s going to happen before September. We’re going to get the official announcement and we are going to get the Snyderverse Batman is going to be returning.”
Murphy goes on to shoot down the notion that Michael Keaton was brought in to replace Ben Affleck as Batman, as well as Robert Pattinson being a replacement, as what is being created is a DC Multiverse.
“They are bringing everybody back,” says Murphy. “This is planned… This is a design because of Zack. This is a plan that they’re moving forward with. I mean, I keep saying it is a great time to be a DC fan.”
Murphy also brings up a good point in that the artwork released with the DC FanDome virtual convention looks like the DC Multiverse:
Why Ben Affleck agreed to return as Batman:
Regarding why Ben Affleck agreed to return as Batman, it’s said because Affleck will once again be in control of his Batman.
Interestingly enough, Geoff Johns has been blamed as the reason why Ben Affleck left the Batman role, as Johns is said to have caused interference with Affleck’s decisions involving the script. In addition, Zack Snyder brought Affleck on board as his choice for the DCEU Dark Knight, and since Snyder left Justice League, Affleck decided it wasn’t worth all the headaches to remain as Batman (Johns is also blamed for screwing over Snyder and problems with Justice League).
Now that Zack Snyder is back and the Snyder Cut is getting released, Ben Affleck has agreed to return as Batman, also on HBO Max.
Murphy says Affleck agreed to return as Batman on HBO Max because he didn’t want to take anything away from the new Robert Pattinson Batman who is starring in the upcoming Matt Reeves movie.
“I think a lot of people misconstrued why he left in the first place,” explains Murphy. “A lot of people will say, ‘Oh, Ben left because he almost killed himself in the role…’ They take it further than it really was. Essentially, Ben took the role because of Zack. Zack convinced him, he sold him on the pitch, he loved the idea, and he built that loyalty to Zack. When Zack left, Ben still stayed behind. He said, ‘I can make this work. I’ll do this. I’m still producing this. I’m going to make it happen.’ But ‘it’ started happening to him, too. He started losing his control — what he wanted to do with the role, he started losing it, and then he lost his interest in it. Eventually, his own health concerns came up and he realized if he kept going down this path, he wouldn’t get what he wanted, he wouldn’t get to do the role he signed up for, and it was just compromise after compromise.”
Zack Snyder back in full force
Murphy continues by noting that with Zack Snyder back in “full force,” that Ben Affleck decided to sign back on as Batman.
“He didn’t want to compromise so he backed out but then the magic happened. Zack came back, came back in full force,” says Murphy. “All the people that caused the issues, to begin with, are gone. Zack is back. He’s making his movie. They pretty much gave him a blank check to finish Zack Snyder’s Justice League… So giving that level of trust back to Zack Snyder was a huge moment for Ben, and having the idea that Zack is back on control of his project, and the idea that he can then move forward with the project that Zack wanted to make, the Batman movie he wanted to make and have Zack in his corner, that was enough to sell him of the return.”
