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Ben Affleck's scrapped Batman movie would have built on 80 years of mythos – and we're so sad we'll never see it

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By Molly Edwards published 3 August 2023

More details have emerged about Ben Affleck's cancelled Batman movie

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
(Image credit: Warner Bros./DC)
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New details have been revealed about Ben Affleck's scrapped Batman movie – and it's all making us very sad. 

Former DC storyboard artist Jay Oliva talked to Inverse about the cancelled film, which was set to be a solo movie focused on Affleck's Batman, featuring Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke. Affleck would have written, directed, and starred. The project eventually turned into Matt Reeves' The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson. 

"I've worked on a lot of Batman things and what was really cool about it was, it was tying together a lot of really cool Batman storylines that had never been really explored," Oliva said. 

He added: "Ben's story was gonna cover something that had never really been covered in comics but was building off of storylines in the Batman mythos over the last 80 years and approaching it from a new kind of perspective."

By the sounds of it, the cancelled Batfleck movie would've been unlike anything we've ever seen before in the superhero world – and it's still pretty gutting that it'll never see the light of day. Affleck seems to be well and truly done as the Caped Crusader following his small role in The Flash, so it's highly unlikely we'll ever see his solo film. 

There's plenty more Batman on the way, though. Pattinson will return in The Batman 2, while spin-off shows The Penguin and Arkham Asylum are also in the works. Plus, a brand new Batman is coming in the DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters' The Brave and the Bold, which will also feature Robin in a live-action movie for the first time since 1997's Batman & Robin. 

While you wait, check out our guide to all the upcoming DC movies and TV shows for everything else the studio has in store. 

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Molly Edwards
Molly Edwards
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Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film section. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.

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