Other than a fleeting appearance in The Flash, Ben Affleck left the role of Batman behind almost a decade ago. He will still be forever linked with the role, and it will always come up in interviews with him.
At the age of 54, and with a long career both behind him and still ahead of him, he can afford to be candid about things, as he has always been when talking about enjoying making Batman vs Superman, but hating working with Whedon on Justice League.
In a recent interview with Variety, Affleck talked about how DC has struggled to build something to rival the juggernaut that is Marvel. He puts it down to one thing. One thing that DC is still trying to figure out – tone:
“There was a sense of “Oh, the movie was a little bit too dark or scary, and it lost some of the younger audience.” It seems to be an ongoing question, and I don’t know the answer: Do you go all the way to a hard-R rating like “Joker”? Or do it like Marvel, which does something broad, unless you’re talking about “Deadpool & Wolverine”?
The interesting thing with the DC characters [comes down] to the legacy of Frank Miller. There seems to be more tension between “Are we doing the grown-up version or the one that’s open to kids?” There’s a risk of being a feathered fish. It’s something they’re still navigating at DC. But I have to say, Kevin Feige is a kind of genius. I can’t think of any producer in the world who can say, “This is what the audience wants,” and be right, except for him.”
Affleck appears in, and directed, Animals which launches on Netflix on Friday.
