John Mayer theorizes that The Accountant is a Batman origin story

John Mayer is entering the fan theory game. On Tuesday, the Grammy-winner postulated on Twitter that Ben Affleck’s 2016 crime thriller The Accountant is actually a Batman origin story.

The Accountant stars Affleck — a.k.a. the current Dark Knight on the big screen — as an autistic CPA who spends his time working as a forensic accountant and a hitman for crime lords. In the movie, we learn that Affleck’s character also suffered a childhood tragedy, witnessing his father die, which no doubt drove him to his eventual career.

Jumping off from the fact that Affleck plays the protagonist in both films, Mayer explained how the two characters are actually the same:

“It’s a Bruce Wayne origin story,” tweeted Mayer. “We see that he is both trained in fighting and accounting. His father was shot. His trailer/storage space is the first bat-cave. He is beginning to acquire great wealth. His brother will become his arch nemesis.” (Note: The brother Mayer is probably referring to is Thomas Wayne, Jr., Bruce Wayne’s long-lost older brother who becomes Owlman, Batman’s evil counterpart from another Earth. And Affleck’s Accountant character battles his brother, played by Jon Bernthal.)

Mayer went on to expand on his theory as he responded to fans, explaining how J.K. Simmons who stars in The Accountant and also plays Commissioner Gordon in Justice League and where Alfred appears in the movie, too.

To be fair, Mayer isn’t the first person to point out the similarities between Batman and the Accountant. EW’s critic Leah Greenblatt made a similar comparison in her C+-grade review of the movie, which you can read here.

Who knows? Maybe Mayer (and Greenblatt) isn’t too far off. The other connection is that Warner Bros. handles both franchises. Perhaps WB is planning on killing two birds with one stone by combining the recently announced sequel to The Accountant with Affleck’s solo outing as the Caped Crusader in Matt Reeves’ The Batman.