Batman has been the single most successful DC Comics character on the big screen, and so at any given moment there's really no question of whether or not we'll see Batman again, it's simply a question of when and how.
For years we've been expecting a new solo Batman feature film, but almost since it was first announced there were questions surrounding exactly what it would look like when it arrived. We now know that Ben Affleck is officially out as the caped crusader and Robert Pattinson is in, but it turns out the decision to replace Affleck was actually made quite some time ago.
It was only this past January when Ben Affleck officially confirmed what had long been rumored, that he was done playing the role of Batman. However, a new THR report claims that the decision to replace Affleck was made at least as far back as February of 2017, which was when Matt Reeves was officially brought on board to write and direct the film.
According to the report, when Reeves started penning his script, which meant jettisoning the work done by Affleck, he started with a character written at around 30 years of age. This means there was never any intention of casting the 46-year-old Affleck in the film.
Of course, this was happening months before Affleck would reprise his role as Batman in Justice League, which means nobody was talking publicly about the idea of recasting the character. Quite the opposite, everybody at Warner Bros. was standing by the actor and claiming that he would be Batman going forward.
When the next solo Batman movie was first confirmed, Ben Affleck was on board to run the show. He would not only star as Bruce Wayne/Batman but he would also write and direct movie. Eventually, Affleck would decide that he simply had taken on too much responsibility and step away from the director's chair. From that point, people did begin to question if there was writing on the wall. As it turns out, there was, but it would be quite some time before we knew that for sure.
There are still several things that we don't really know about The Batman, as the project is being referred. Whether this new younger Batman is now the canonical member of the DCEU Justice League, or if the movie will be a prequel where Robert Pattinson is supposed to be a younger version of Affleck's character, we don't really know.
This could also still be an entirely separate movie not taking place within the same continuity as Justice League, similar to the upcoming Joker movie starring Joaquin Phoenix.
While many thought Ben Affleck's Batman was one of the highlights of the recent DC movies, we now have something entirely new to look forward to and that's exciting. Unfortunately, we have quite a while to wait as Matt Reeves' new Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson isn't coming to theaters until June of 2021.
