DC director teases Ben Affleck's solo Batman movie that never came to be: 'It was f---ing awesome'

Ben Affleck's tenure as Batman almost certainly concluded with The Flash this summer, and now details are finally emerging about the solo Batfleck movie that never came to be.

Director and storyboard artist Jay Oliva worked on dozens DC Comics projects dating back to 2003, and in a recent interview with Inverse, he discussed one of the company's most exciting movies that never fully materialized: Affleck's aborted solo Batman movie.

"I can't really say too much other than it was f---ing awesome," Oliva told Inverse. "It was the best. It was amazing."

HBO Max/Everett Ben Affleck as Batman.

After his debut as the Caped Crusader in Zack Snyder's divisive Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, Affleck was attached to direct and star in his own Batman movie. But the filmmaker "couldn't crack" the project, as he told Jimmy Kimmel in a 2019 interview.

"I showed somebody [The Batman] script," Affleck told The New York Times in a 2020 interview. "They said, 'I think the script is good. I also think you'll drink yourself to death if you go through what you just went through again.'"

Affleck stepped away from the project, which eventually evolved into Matt Reeves' 2022 version starring Robert Pattinson.

Now, Oliva has shed a little light on what Affleck's The Batman may have looked like.

"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," Oliva told Inverse. "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."

"It was very clever and there were a lot of things about it that I really loved that I wish that had come to fruition," Oliva continued. "It was a really great project in the beginning. Ben had to step away for personal reasons, and I totally understood, but the time that I spent with Ben working on the project was fantastic."

Affleck portrayed Bruce Wayne/Batman in five projects over seven years: Batman v. Superman, Suicide Squad, Justice League, Zack Snyder's Justice League, and The Flash. He also reprised the role for the forthcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but The Hollywood Reporter reported that his scenes will ultimately be cut in the final version of the film.

Reeves' critically and commercially successful version of The Batman is set to receive a sequel in Oct. 2025. Additionally, after James Gunn launches his new interconnected DCU with Superman: Legacy, The Flash director Andy Muschietti will helm The Brave and the Bold, which will introduce a new version of Batman (and Robin) for the DCU going forward.

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