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“The Batman” Solo Film Loses Another Director & Possibly More

Over the years, Batman’s gadgets have helped him get out of many situations. Whether spring loaded bat-ears, bat roller-skates, or even female repellent (I wish I was making that last one up), Batman can handle almost any problem thrown his way… until now.

They say bad news comes in threes, and Warner Brother’s plans for a standalone Batman film just hit its 3rd piece of bad news in as many weeks with the film losing ANOTHER potential director!

All these problems started three weeks ago when Ben Affleck announced that he wouldn’t be directing “The Batman” as originally promised. This revelation was made all the more awkward considering a recent interview with The Guardian where Affleck said he wouldn’t direct the film unless he thought it was really good. At first this seemed promising and assured us that this would be a quality film. Sadly, this wasn’t the case as a month later Affleck announced he wouldn’t be directing after all.

When a director leaves a film, it’s always an awkward situation. Though between Affleck’s comments and recent rumors that Affleck might not want to be Batman at all anymore, this film starts to seem like a failure before it’s even begun filming! Things started to level out a bit last week when everyone was reporting that Mat Reeves – the director of War for the Planet of the Apes – had signed on to direct the film; but that wasn’t entirely true. You see when a studio announces they’re “in talks” with someone, it’s VERY likely that they’ve found their new person – but not confirmed. And that’s what just happened here as we are now hearing that talks have “broken down” between the two.

"The Batman" Solo Film Loses Another Director & Possibly More
Image: Warner Brothers

Now to be fair, talks can always resume between Warner Bros and Reeves – or we can get months of people jumping ship and getting replaced like what happened with Ant-Man originally. Though it’s important to remember that Ant-Man ended up being an amazing film despite all its shake-ups. The future of Batman in the DCCU might seem shaky right now, but it’s not hopeless. The only problem would be if those rumors about Ben Affleck wanting out of the cape and cowl entirely end up being true. Again, this is only rumor but that would be a far more nightmare situation than any director drama.

Again, Ant-Man is the perfect example of how directorial shake-ups and set drama doesn’t necessarily mean a failure. Though Affleck leaving the DCCU as Batman would be a hit I’m not sure the DCCU could take considering the expanded universe is being built largely upon Batman. It was Bruce Wayne who appeared in Suicide Squad post credits and will also be the one to recruit Flash and Aquaman. And no matter how funny “Sad Affleck” is, you have to admit his Batman was one of the best things of Batman V Superman and he looks even better in the teaser trailer for Justice League.

If Affleck left as Batman, Warner Bros would be in an exceptionally difficult spot since they can’t really replace the Bruce Wayne they just tried so hard to establish. Even if they enacted a Battle For The Cowl-esque storyline or brought in his son Terry McGinnis as replacements, there is nowhere near enough background set up to go in that direction. As of the moment, all we can do is wait and see. Though with so much exciting visuals coming out for Wonder Woman and Justice League, I for one hope the DC Cinematic Universe is able to continue smoothly. And if worse comes to worse, just rename the universe Wonder Woman & Friends!

"The Batman" Solo Film Loses Another Director & Possibly More
Wonder Woman (2017)
Gal Gadot

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