It's not every day that you walk into a new job opening with the person who previously held it welcoming you personally. Yet that's exactly what Ben Affleck has done, as he recently assured folks that while he's not directing The Batman, he's more than thrilled about the man who is. After today's previous announcement that War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves is officially slotting into the director's chair for the DC stand-alone, Affleck shared a hearty gesture that not only invited Reeves to make himself at home, but reassured folks that he won't be leaving the project any time soon. You can see his tweet directly below:
Now why would a man allegedly ready to leave The Batman behind make such a big deal out of Matt Reeves' hiring onto the project? Especially on their own personal Twitter feed, and without any prompting from a news item? Well, if the signs are pointing in the direction we think they are, Ben Affleck will indeed remain as Bruce Wayne / Batman for the foreseeable future. The message says it all. You can read it as if Affleck himself is standing at the doors, welcoming Reeves into the Batcave with an ice cold Batmug of Batbeer, or whatever Batbeverage the new director Bat-wants.
Though it does help that DC creative big wig, and co-conspirator Geoff Johns is there welcoming Matt Reeves in with his own Tweet of welcome, as seen below:
Now, we don't want to dive too hard into conspiracy territory, but there is a way that all of this could still lead to Ben Affleck leaving the project. After all, the tweets that we've seen are congratulatory, but at the same time, there's not a lot of, "Looking forward to working with you," words between the group. That's not to say anyone is being rude or crass, but the tweets are worded vaguely enough that there's still room for anything to happen. Not to mention, the press release officially announcing Matt Reeves' directing duties didn't mention Ben Affleck at all, which is never a good sign for someone whose played your lead character before.
It hasn't been an easy road for The Batman to walk, particularly after Ben Affleck left the director's chair, casting doubt on the one DC project folks seemed to hope would overwrite the messes that were Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. Even the hiring of Matt Reeves itself seemed to be quite shaky at times, as the first announcement of his potential involvement only lead to the eventual reports of talks breaking down between the man and the studio who would hire him. Not now though, as everything looks 110% on track to normalcy, with Reeves chiming in with his own tweet of thanks:
So now we supposedly have a leading actor, a director, and a studio still eager to play ball. Unfortunately, we don't have an official release date on The Batman, especially the project's numerous setbacks may have taken it out of the picture for 2018's release window. We'll keep our ears and eyes open for any sort of new information involving The Batman. In the meantime, let's just hope that a swift and decisive start to the project can be found, because we still really want to think this is the one that'll put DC Comics back in the race.
