The upcoming “The Flash” film will now boast TWO former Batman stars.
Vanity Fair spoke with the film’s director Andy Muschietti (“IT”) who confirmed that Affleck will reprise his role as Batman in the film.
He joins the already confirmed Michael Keaton who will also appear as the Caped Crusader. Muschietti says he thinks he’s come up with a way to give Affleck a chance to truly shine as Batman in a way his earlier work didn’t allow:
“His Batman has a dichotomy that is very strong which is his masculinity – because of the way he looks, and the imposing figure that he has, and his jawline – but he’s also very vulnerable. He knows how to deliver from the inside out, that vulnerability. He just needs a story that allows him to bring that contrast, that balance.”
Muschietti also wants to make it very clear this is not a mere cameo, with Affleck’s involvement said to be a key part of the film:
“He’s a very substantial part of the emotional impact of the movie. The interaction and relationship between Barry and Affleck’s Wayne will bring an emotional level that we haven’t seen before. It’s Barry’s movie, it’s Barry’s story, but their characters are more related than we think. They both lost their mothers to murder, and that’s one of the emotional vessels of the movie. That’s where the Affleck Batman kicks in.”
The movie is said to be inspired by the “Flashpoint” storyline from the comics which sees Barry going back in time to save his mother from being murdered – in doing so he greatly changes his current reality. The change allows for Affleck and Keaton to play the same character in two different versions of reality:
“This movie is a bit of a hinge in the sense that it presents a story that implies a unified universe where all the cinematic iterations that we’ve seen before are valid. It’s inclusive in the sense that it is saying all that you’ve seen exists, and everything that you will see exists, in the same unified multiverse.”
Affleck has made it clear on numerous occasions he had no plans to ever return to the role as Batman or superhero films so this news is highly surprising.
