UPDATE, August 29: Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld is publicly asking Snyder to call him, and his verdict on this exact casting is five years old: Affleck “looks like the Frank Miller Batman come to life.”
UPDATE, August 17: Weâre now told why Paramount wants Zack Snyderâs The Dark Knight Returns, and how the movie could become the key to bringing back the SnyderVerse.
UPDATE, August 15: The movie waiting on Affleck is further along than “ready.” Per our insiders, the storyboards are already drawn, by Oliva and Snyder himself, and the plan is Miller’s graphic novel exactly as written, like Watchmen.
UPDATE, August 15: Batman has his Superman. Per our insiders, Snyder wants Henry Cavill opposite Affleck in The Dark Knight Returns: “Zack loves the guy and is very loyal to his people.”
UPDATE, August 14: Snyder responded in the loudest way he could without saying a word. He posted a BvS photo of himself with Affleck, scored to “We Do This Together” from the Snyder Cut.
Zack Snyder wants Ben Affleck back in the cowl.
Following up on our exclusive that The Dark Knight Returns is ready to go with Jay Oliva and built for IMAX, we asked our insiders the obvious question: Affleck as Batman in TDKR?
The answer: “Zack wants him but no offers made yet.”
And the reason no offer exists has nothing to do with Affleck: “WB projects are on hold until Paramount closes the deal.”
So there it is. Snyder’s pick for the Miller Batman is the actor he cast because of the Miller Batman, and the only thing between Batfleck and a phone call is a courtroom in Oakland.
The Batman Who Was Cast Because Of This Book
Affleck’s Batman was born from The Dark Knight Returns.
Snyder announced Batman v Superman at Comic-Con 2013 by having Harry Lennix read Batman’s warning to Superman straight from Frank Miller’s pages, before a single actor was cast.
The armored suit, the older and meaner Bruce Wayne, the showdown with Superman, all of it came from the book.
And Snyder said in 2015 that he deliberately left the story itself untouched, telling press “you could still make Dark Knight Returns into a movie.”
And in July, Snyder showed everyone exactly which Batman he pictures. When he and Frank Miller jointly posted a video morphing Miller’s Dark Knight Returns splash page into live action, the footage the page dissolved into was Affleck’s armored Batman from Batman v Superman.
The author of the book co-signed the post. Now the insider line puts words to what the edit already showed.
None of this is new to CBN readers: back in February, our sources said Snyder’s preferred Batman for the story remains Affleck, who would be willing to return under the right circumstances.
In Miller’s story, Bruce Wayne is 55 years old. Affleck turns 54 on Saturday.
The actor Snyder cast to play old has caught up to the part.
“No Offers Made Yet” Is About Oakland, Not Affleck
The second half of the insider’s answer ties this directly to everything else happening at Warner Bros. right now.
Warner Bros. cannot make offers because Warner Bros. cannot make decisions.
The studio has agreed not to close the Paramount deal until a trial verdict, as late as June 2027, while the 12-state lawsuit to block the sale plays out.
Our insiders described the freeze a month ago: chaos, projects on hold, decisions delayed, with Warner Bros. facing a sell-off in pieces if the deal dies.
This week, the Directors Guild and the IATSE crew union told both sides in writing that productions are being put on hold or canceled over the uncertainty. Now you can add a Batman movie to the pile.
If Bonta comes to the table before Ellison’s October 1 deadline, the phone call can happen this fall. If it goes to trial, the earliest anyone can say yes is spring 2027.
Affleck Said He Was Done. Look At What He Was Done With.
The obvious pushback writes itself: Affleck has spent years saying he’s finished with Batman.
The record is real. He walked away from directing The Batman during the Justice League era, a production he has called the worst experience of his career, and by 2025 he was telling GQ he had lost interest in the genre altogether.
But look at what he told GQ he actually loved about the role: “the sort of older, broken, damaged Bruce Wayne.” His regret was that the approach skewed too old for the broad audience a shared-universe tentpole needs.
That is not a man done with the character. That is a man done with the machine that was built around the character.
The Dark Knight Returns is the one Batman movie where older, broken, and damaged is not a compromise. It is the entire premise, as a standalone IMAX event with no universe to launch.
And the last time Affleck wore the suit, in The Flash, he said he finally figured out the character and “nailed it.” Then, as we exclusively reported, the movie’s real ending would have led to an Affleck Batman multiverse before it was cut.
Also don’t forget that Kevin Smith recently confirmed what we have been told, that the SnyderVerse could be returning. Prior to that, Smith had visited Affleck in his production office, where Affleck has a Batsuit on display. When the SnyderVerse returns, Ben Affleck returns as Batman.
He Already Does Business With The Ellisons
Here’s the part almost nobody has connected: the incoming owner is not a stranger to Affleck.
Affleck and Matt Damon’s studio, Artists Equity, made its first movie, Air, in partnership with Skydance Sports, the sports division of David Ellison’s Skydance.
And the money behind Artists Equity, Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, is a longtime backer of Skydance itself.
Add our exclusive that De Luca and Abdy are already fielding pitches from Snyder, Affleck, and Christopher McQuarrie for the post-close Warner Bros., and the picture sharpens: everyone involved is already in business with everyone else.
The only missing signature is a settlement or a verdict.
