Should We Be Thanking Ana de Armas for Ben Affleck's Return as Batman in 'The Flash'?
Ben Affleck is returning as Batman in The Flash multiple outlets report Thursday. The Warner Bros. movie which is planned for a June 2022 release will explore a multiverse of DC Comics heroes — and according to Vanity Fair is an “adaptation of DC’s 2011 Flashpoint series of comic book crossovers. The Andy Muschietti directed film will star Ezra Miller as quick-footed Barry Allen alongside Michael Keaton’s Batman from the Tim Burton produced 1989 film according to Deadline.
Vanity Fair reports Affleck just received the script at the end of last week and signed on to the project sometime this week. “He’s a very substantial part of the emotional impact of the movie,” filmmaker Andy Muschietti said in an interview referring to Affleck’s role. “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,” Muschietti continued. “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.”
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In January 2019 Affleck confirmed his retirement from Batman but it wasn’t until a year later in February 2020 that we got the real reason. The 48-year-old opened up about saying goodbye to the Dark Knight in a candid interview with the New York Times sharing that he parted ways with the film because of the toll it was taking on his personal relationships. Affleck at the time was nearing the end of his marriage with Jennifer Garner, whom he shares three children: Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel.
“I showed somebody the Batman script,” Affleck said. “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.'”
The producer of The Flash, Barbara Muschietti, told Vanity Fair “she had worried this might make him reluctant to return at all. There have been some all sorts of stories and things he said himself about having a very hard time playing Batman, and it had been difficult for him,” she said. “I think it was more about a difficult time in his life. When we approached him, he’s now in a very different time in his life. He was very open to it, which was a bit of a surprise to us. It was a question mark.”
Affleck, now sober, seemingly has a very positive outlook which could be in part due to his relationship with now girlfriend Ana de Armas. And the pair seem to be serious as de Armas has already met Affleck’s kids (a huge step) and with their adorable photoshoots the two have been sharing to Instagram, it definitely looks like things are heating up.
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