Ben Affleck, star of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League and the upcoming stand-alone Batman movie, would like people to stop asking him about the caped crusader.
In the past few weeks, Affleck has gotten vocal about how annoying it can be to have questions thrown at him about The Batman. Affleck, who recently re-confirmed he would be directing the film, told Jimmy Kimmel on Jan. 9 the movie was definitely in development. It didn’t take much for Affleck to sit back and let loose, complaining that no one ever asked him about other films he was working on.
“It's one of those things that's really frustrating because with Live by Night, it took me a year and a half to write it and get it ready, and I worked really hard, and nobody gave a shit,” Affleck said. “Nobody was like, ‘Where’s Live By Night?!’ But with Batman I keep on getting, ‘Where’s the fucking Batman?!’ And I’m like, ‘Whoa, I’m working! Give me a second.’”
More recently, Affleck spoke to Entertainment Tonight Canada while promoting Live by Night, his gangster movie set in Boston during the Prohibition era. During the interview, he was asked about The Batman, and once again, Affleck gave his opinion on all of the questions he was getting asked about it.
“Oh my God, it’s such a pain in the ass. It’s like every time I mention Batman it gets this huge clickbait,” Affleck said. “When I was doing this movie it took me two years to get it together, but nobody ever asked me, ‘Where’s Live By Night?’ You know? They ask me ‘Batman, Batman, Batman.’ Batman’s coming along, it’s going to be great. We’re going to make something really special. We’re going to take the time to make it right. We’re going to do it good.”
It’s obvious Affleck is fed up with both journalists and fans asking about the status of the movie, but to be fair, it wasn’t until just recently that Affleck gave any formal update at all. On Jan. 1, an interview with Affleck was published in The Guardian. Affleck said that while Warner Bros. and DC may have confirmed he was working on the project, and moreover, although he had already started casting and doing interviews about the movie, he wasn’t 100 percent on board.
“It’s not a set thing and there’s no script,” Affleck said. “If it doesn’t come together in a way I think is really great I’m not going to do it.”
The actor expressed a similar sentiment in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying he wasn’t going to “write and direct anything that I don’t think is good enough to be made.” For a while, it seemed like the potential for an Affleck-starring and -directed Batman movie was looking less likely. Questions about the status of the film, with his participation essentially in limbo until the Kimmel interview on Jan. 9, seemed valid.
Warner Bros. first confirmed Affleck was attached to the film in April 2016 at CinemaCon. In October, Affleck said he was working on the script for The Batman and unveiled the title of the movie, although it’s still not entirely set in stone. Affleck’s hesitance to take on the project, which didn’t come up until The Guardian interview in 2017, seemed to stem from the poor reception to Batman v Superman. In May, Birth Movies Death reported that Affleck was left humiliated by the film, which makes the actor’s hesitance more than understandable.
For now, Affleck is definitely on board. Although there’s no release date for the film at this time, the movie is expected to debut in 2018.