Twitter Lashes Out Against Ben Affleck as the New Batman
Fans quickly flocked to the Internet after Ben Affleck was cast as Warner Bros.’ new Batman. But the buzz may not be the kind that Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment want right now.
Within the first hour, 96,088 tweets were sent about Affleck as Batman, according to Fizziology. He has been averaging 39,225 tweets per hour, for a total of 509,922 tweets just over the past 12 hours.
However, 71% of the chatter was negative on Twitter, with 15% positive and 14% mixed.
Around 12% of those sending tweets wanted Christian Bale back, while 10% referenced Affleck’s role as Batman. Another 3% reference “Gigli,” while 2% made a reference to Tim Tebow.
Fizziology said 19% of the mixed chatter came from audiences making jokes about Matt Damon also being cast in the film, mostly as Aquaman or Robin.
What’s interesting is that conversation about the actual Batman versus Superman movie was much smaller, only generating about 30,000 tweets over the past 12 hours. After the Affleck news broke, conversation increased 4,219%. There were 5,744 tweets about the film in the first hour, and it averaged 2,307 tweets per hour.
Remember that when Daniel Craig, Tobey Maguire and Heath Ledger were cast as James Bond, Spider-Man and the Joker, the initial fan reaction also was negative.
And like in those cases, Fizzilogy believes the the buzz will become more favorable for Affleck once a more mainstream audience reacts to the news — and sees the actor in the role when the first footage is released.
A poll conducted by Variety found similar results, with 77.21% of the 86,627 that responded, saying they do not think Affleck is the right choice to play Batman. Nearly 23% approved of the choice.
SEE ALSO: POLL: Is Ben Affleck the Right Choice for Batman?
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