Ben Affleck: 'Oh S***, We Have a Problem' - The Moment He Knew He Was Done as Batman

Ben Affleck, the star of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, has candidly discussed his challenging journey portraying the iconic superhero for DC. In a recent interview with GQ, after nearly a decade of embodying Batman, Affleck labeled his experience within the Snyder-verse as “excruciating.” He attributed his disillusionment to a complex relationship with DC, which ultimately led to his disinterest in the superhero genre.

“There are a number of reasons why that was a really excruciating experience,” Affleck shared. “And they don’t all have to do with the simple dynamic of, say, being in a superhero movie or whatever. I am not interested in going down that particular genre again, not because of that bad experience, but just: I’ve lost interest in what was of interest about it to me. But I certainly wouldn’t want to replicate an experience like that.”

Affleck has touched on this topic before, but he now delves deeper into the root causes of his negative experience. He primarily pointed to a “misalignment of agendas, understandings, and expectations” between him and DC, but he also acknowledged his own role in the situation. Reflecting on his time with DC, he felt he “wasn’t bringing anything particularly wonderful to that equation at the time, either.”

“I mean, my failings as an actor, you can watch the various movies and judge. But more of my failings of, in terms of why I had a bad experience, part of it is that what I was bringing to work every day was a lot of unhappiness,” he elaborated. “So I wasn’t bringing a lot of positive energy to the equation. I didn’t cause problems, but I came in and I did my job and I went home. But you’ve got to do a little bit better than that.”

Affleck’s journey with DC began when he joined Zack Snyder’s Batman v. Superman alongside Henry Cavill. His tenure included various cameos and a canceled standalone project. Fans will recall his appearances in multiple ensemble films such as Justice League (both the 2017 original and the 2021 Snyder Cut), The Flash, and a brief role in Suicide Squad in 2016.

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Details on the abandoned Batman film are sparse, but speculation suggests it might have explored 80 years of the Dark Knight, possibly delving into Arkham Asylum and featuring Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke.

Affleck has previously credited Matt Damon for helping him decide to step away from the role, but in his latest GQ interview, he revealed his son also influenced his decision to leave. “But what happened was it started to skew too old for a big part of the audience. Like even my own son at the time was too scared to watch (Batman v. Superman). And so when I saw that I was like, 'Oh shit, we have a problem.' Then I think that’s when you had a filmmaker that wanted to continue down that road and a studio that wanted to recapture all the younger audience at cross purposes. Then you have two entities, two people really wanting to do something different and that is a really bad recipe.”

DC is now charting new territory by separating its darker and lighter narratives. The darker tone will continue with The Batman 2 slated for 2027, while the more lighthearted approach will launch with James Gunn’s DCU starting with Superman this July. As for Affleck, he has ruled out returning to DC to direct a film in Gunn’s new universe.