Ben Affleck, renowned for his portrayal of the Caped Crusader in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, recently shared candid insights into his challenging experience with the DC franchise during an interview with GQ. Reflecting on nearly a decade of donning the Batman suit, Affleck described his journey as a key figure in the so-called Snyder-verse as “a really excruciating experience.” He attributed this to a complex and strained relationship with DC, which ultimately led to his waning interest in the superhero genre.
“There are a number of reasons why that was a really excruciating experience,” Affleck remarked. “And they don’t all have to do with the simple dynamic of, say, being in a superhero movie or whatever. I am not interested in going down that particular genre again, not because of that bad experience, but just: I’ve lost interest in what was of interest about it to me. But I certainly wouldn’t want to replicate an experience like that.”
Affleck has previously touched on this topic, but in this latest discussion, he delved deeper into the root causes of his negative experience. He pointed to a “misalignment of agendas, understandings, and expectations” between himself and DC. Additionally, Affleck admitted his own contributions to the challenging environment, acknowledging, “I wasn’t bringing anything particularly wonderful to that equation at the time, either.”
Elaborating on his personal shortcomings, Affleck confessed, “I mean, my failings as an actor, you can watch the various movies and judge. But more of my failings of, in terms of why I had a bad experience, part of it is that what I was bringing to work every day was a lot of unhappiness. So I wasn’t bringing a lot of positive energy to the equation. I didn’t cause problems, but I came in and I did my job and I went home. But you’ve got to do a little bit better than that.”
Affleck's tenure with DC began with his co-starring role in Zack Snyder’s Batman v. Superman alongside Henry Cavill. This role led to numerous cameo appearances and involvement in several team-up projects, including the original 2017 Justice League and its 2021 Snyder Cut, as well as The Flash. He also made a brief appearance in Suicide Squad in 2016. However, a planned standalone Batman movie was ultimately canceled.
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While details on the canceled Batman film remain scarce, rumors suggest it would have covered 80 years of the Dark Knight's history, possibly exploring Arkham Asylum and featuring Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke.
Affleck credits his longtime collaborator Matt Damon for helping him decide to step away from the role. However, in his recent GQ interview, he revealed that his own son also played a crucial role in his decision. “But what happened was it started to skew too old for a big part of the audience. Like even my own son at the time was too scared to watch (Batman v. Superman). And so when I saw that I was like, 'Oh shit, we have a problem.' Then I think that’s when you had a filmmaker that wanted to continue down that road and a studio that wanted to recapture all the younger audience at cross purposes. Then you have two entities, two people really wanting to do something different and that is a really bad recipe.”
As DC continues to evolve, it is now splitting its storytelling into grittier and more lighthearted paths. The darker narrative will persist with The Batman 2 slated for 2027, while the more whimsical approach will be spearheaded by James Gunn’s DCU, starting with Superman this July. Meanwhile, Affleck has firmly stated that he will not return to DC to direct a film in Gunn’s new universe.
