So, we’re not sure if you’ve heard, but there’s been some news. You may want to sit down for this, actually. Ben Affleck has been cast as Batman in Zack Snyder’s eventual Man of Steel sequel. And there has not been much rejoicing.
In light of this news, we asked you to be our personal Sam Becketts, traveling back into the past to put right what once went wrong, and tell us who you think would make a better Batman. And you, beautiful denizens of the internet, responded with a wave of suggestions that restored our faith in humanity. At least, the non-Zack Snyder portion of humanity.
Because we agreed with Jim C. Hines, who said that the choice of Idris Elba would have made the internet explode, we have created the above image. Just look at that picture! Imagine the alternate universe where that picture is the truth! That man can fill out a Bat-suit. Check out the rest of our Bat-tastic list below, and give us more suggestions in the comments! Maybe if there are enough of us we can use our momentum to spin the planet backwards until it’s yesterday again, and we can recast this sucker! (And stop mixing our metaphors after six cups of coffee…)
“No more Batmen and Superman until we have a Wonder Woman film. Wonder Woman can play Batman” –Liz Bourke, hawkwing_lb.
“Joe Manganiello. Alcide the werewolf from True Blood. Batman should be a dark, intimidating badass.” –VanAllenPlexico.
“Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Can’t you imagine him growling I’M THE GODDAMN BATMAN.” –orange_marmoset
“Thorin Oakenshield himself! Richard Armitage.” –laineynzo
“James Purefoy. Jon Hamm” –ShoshanaKessock
“Warwick Davis.” –kradlum
“For older, grizzled Batman, there is only one choice: Ron Perlmen. Search your heart. You know it to be true.“ –johemedel.
(Actually, the elusive nature of truth has always troubled us. But Ron Perlman would be soooo good.)
“I say bring back Adam West. Break the cycle of grimdark and let these flicks be fun again.” –shadowmaat.
“In hindsight, looking at today… Chris O’Donnell” –meijerjt
A few people thought some actors should trade the TARDIS in for a Batmobile with Scott Gregory saying, “I hear Matt Smith is looking for work. Doctor Batman anyone?” and Shane Nixon voting for Peter Capaldi. John Friberg wants John Cleese, and added “Seriously.” And while we do think this is a good proposal, how awesome would John Cleese be as Alfred?
Finally, Ana Resende won our hearts by joining us on the Tilda Swinton Express. She made Constantine worth watching. Allow us to reiterate: she made Constantine worth watching. If anyone could have saved Zack Snyder from himself, it would have been her.
Although we greatly admire Danny Bowes for standing by Ben Affleck.
“B-Fleck’s a fine choice. Eff the haters, right in the A.” –moviesbybowes
These are all great suggestions, but really we’re just dancing around the fact that classic Mae West should be the next Batman:
Deal with that, Superman.
Stubby the Rocket is the mascot of Tor.com. Stubby thinks that that new Batman should be Johnny 5 from Short Circuit.
… and Batman also hates 40 degree days
Josh Brolin as gritty, older Batman. If anybody should have figured that out it it should have been Zach Snyder.
Sad day when Daredevil gets another superhero movie…
I would of gone with Josh Brolin….They are going to ruin the franchise for DC….Arent They? ARENT THEY!!!!
I would LOVE Idris Elba as Batman. He would rock that so hard.
I am officially jumping on the Ron Pearlman train.
Oh yeah.
Honestly if were going for a older Batman Ron Perlmen or Denzel Washington, actually lets go with Denzel. I believe he could bring that grizzled look of Batman extremely well.
I like the suggestions of Wonder Woman and Warwick Davis.
The casting surprised and confused me as well, BUT all I can think is the absolute murderous rage that came out of the internet when Heath Ledger was cast as Joker. And we saw how amazing that went. People were scared of Hathaway too, but she was pretty badass. Maybe Affleck will bomb, or maybe he’ll prove himself, but we shouldn’t be so quick to hate on the guy. At least he’s a huge comic book fan, so you know he wants to do right by the character.
(We should really be more scared of Zack Snyder. I’m so, sooo tired of the Frank Miller-seque style he keeps doing. It was cool once, but that was plenty!)
This always confuses me. These actors aren’t playing Batman, they are playing Bruce Wayne. The suit plays batman. Affleck will be fine.
Affleck should be fine. Christian Bale would have bombed as Daredevil with that script & direction.
If you can reach back in time for Mae West, allow me to use my own Chronomandibular Mechanism (time travel with teeth!) to propose Patrick McGoohan.
Yeah, yeah, non-American, but imagine him bringing to Batman the same glowering intensity and unbending principle he brought to Number Six.
@11. You have it backwards; Batman is the real person, while Bruce Wayne is the character he puts on when he needs to move about publicly. With or without the mask, he is Batman.
(Making him the exact opposite of Clark Kent, who adopts the Superman persona to cover up who he really is.)
Personall, I would’ve gone with David Boreanaz. We know he can do both “broody, tortured, loner” as well as “dim-witted goofball” and everything in between.
I don’t mind Ben Affleck, but I don’t want to see him as Batman. If I wanted a Batman who had a penchant for cracking wise, I’d rewind to one of my favorite cave dwellers, Michael Keaton. On the other hand, I’m not entirely sold on Idris Elba either. There is a such thing as over-exposure. I would hate to see him turn into another Tom Cruise, career choice-wise. And I just don’t want him to become known as the “stoic, pensive guy.” However, I would love to see him round a Gotham corner to Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man.
Richard Armitage.
Gotta agree with anthonypero@11, Affleck will be fine as Batman as long as the script is good; I rather liked him as Daredevil but the script wasn’t what it should have been.
As for Affleck being too snarky, go see him in The Town. Not much humour in that one & he was excellent.
Kato
Lest everyone forget, in every single iteration of the DC Universe (and there have been several), Batman and Superman have been roughly the same age. If anything is going to undercut this movie before it’s even written, it won’t be Affleck’s casting — it’ll be this stupid premise of old Batman versus young Superman.
Despite Snyder and Nolan wrongfooting a Superman movie by emphasizing how far removed from the heroic ideal their character is, Man of Steel was still successful enough to justify a sequel. Now this merry band has decided to raise the stakes on bad judgment with this debacle in the making. Just when I thought nothing could do more damage to the DC legacy than the misbegotten New 52…
If we have to see Batman trading punches with someone, I would happily pay money to see Kate Kane taking him on, a la the current Batwoman comic arc.
Or a Catwoman movie? Seriously, even if someone just clipped the Catwoman parts from The Dark Knight Rises and assembled them into a clip reel I would watch that. Anne Hathway was so badass.
We have had enough of these male superheroes for the next few years. Lets have the women bring it on. Anne Hathaway was a explosive and I’d watch her as Batwoman all day. Man that woman is hot and there are others equally as badass gorgeous.
@14. That’s very true… in world. Casting isn’t done in world. The actor plays Bruce Wayne, the fact that “Batman” also plays Bruce Wayne is… immaterial.
The Internet apparently only can think of one actor at a time. I like Idris Elba and all, but c’mon, let’s not make him a punchline before he even has a chance.
Affleck is a good actor, he will do fine. His acting was not one of the problems that made Daredevil such a mess.
It will be interesting, though, to imagine how an award winning director takes direction from that Sucker Punch guy.
Well, if a guy can be several different cartoon superheros, then Hugh Jackman. He can swing the duality of tortured Caped Crusader and suave billionaire genius playboy philanthropist as well as anyone. Yes, including him.
@24, DON’T CROSS THE COMIC STREAMS!!!
Chris Evans has played two (well known, I’m not counting Jensen from The Losers) comic heroes, but they were both Marvel.
James Marsden, OTOH, played a Marvel hero, then moved to a DC movie. BAD THINGS HAPPENED, MAN! We got X3.
So while I completely agree that Jackman is freaking IDEAL for this(he’s played the role before in The Prestige, opposite Bale, as a matter of fact), yeah, let’s not.
Stupid idea. Much better to cast him as an original black super hero. People get fed up with recasting white characters as black characters for no apparent reason other than political. Hence Will Smith appearing as the hero in “The Wild Wild West” at a time when a black person would have struggled hugely against discrimination. I’ve nothing against black roles where they make sense, but recasting a traditionally white character as black is so blatant that it would be distracting. Also, this obsession with rebooting comic book characters is wearing me down. As someone who grew up with the “Silver Age” of comics (early 1960s) and remember quite well the original super heroes, I find the film adaptations (with notable exceptions) generally so bad that it would be far better to invent new ones for the screen. At least that way there would be no odious comparisons.
Anson Mount of “Hell On Wheels” would make an awesome Batman.