It’s a big year for Warner Bros. and DC. After the disappointing critical reception to both Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice and Suicide Squad, the release of Justice League in late 2017 looms large. Until then, here’s some more potential bad news to add to the pile.
Batman-On-Film has reported that, according to sources, the solo Batman movie starring Ben Affleck has been pushed back. The original intention was to begin filming in the spring with a release date scheduled to be somewhere within the blockbuster terrain of the 2018 summer movie schedule.
If production has indeed been delayed, that might be a problem, and could push the movie back to the summer of 2019. With Warner Bros. hoping to get their DCEU back on track after a deflating start, naturally the intention was to release more, and better, movies to gain their audiences trust back. Delaying their first solo Batman film would be a tough pill to swallow.
Still, this could end up being a positive. Rushing a film into production is never wise, and there’s still too much about the film up in the air.
Affleck himself has expressed interest in directing, and has been co-writing a script with DC President, Geoff Johns, that he hopes will at least form part of the movie. If the delay is legit, it might give Warner Bros. time to establish exactly where they want to go with Batman and understand the deeper nuances of his character.
The last thing they need after the initial critical disappointments of the first two DCEU movies, is to fail with a solo Batman movie, especially after the high expectations left by Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. Fans would no doubt prefer a delayed yet great Batman film, rather than the opposite.
Affleck has also stated that he wouldn’t be willing to commit to the film if the script wasn’t to his liking. He previously stated: “If it doesn’t come together in a way I think is really great I’m not going to do it”.
While it seems incredibly unlikely that Affleck would walk away from such a major role, he has the ability to dictate his own terms as to how the solo Batman film turns out, though perhaps Warner Bros. would be wary of giving Affleck too much power, which might rule him out from eventually directing the project.
Until then, the DCEU has plenty of time to get back on track in 2017, beginning with the release of Wonder Woman on Friday, June 2 and potentially ending the year with a bang with Justice League on Friday, November 17. They’ll be keeping their fingers crossed.
#Peace.Love.Batman
