Ben Affleck has been retired as Batman for several years now. The biggest issue with his run as the legendary DC Comics hero is that he never got a solo movie. At one point, Affleck was due to write, direct and star in a version of The Batman. His version famously would have featured Deathstroke as a villain, played by Joe Manganiello. But he wasn’t the only villain due to appear in the movie.
Concept artist Skyler Pinkerton worked on Affleck’s abandoned DC movie. Recently, he had a conversation about it with a fan on Instagram (via Reddit). Pinkerton revealed that he did some previsualization work, some of which involved none other than Mr. Freeze.
“Legally, I can’t throw around ‘proof.’ Lots of previs stuff I did I’d love to share,” Pinkerton said. “But for me, it happened, and was a dream driving onto the WB lot every morning just to work on Batman (the Mr. Freeze scenes were my favorite).”
Much is known and not known about Affleck’s would-be Batman solo adventure. Rumors suggested it would include at least three major villains. It’s also since been confirmed that it would have largely taken place inside of Arkham Asylum. Hence, the multiple villains. This is something that Pinkerton also echoed, saying the following.
“He was a very small part, but SO good. Some people have already come out and talked about it (like Bob Richardson, the DP), so I feel I can at least echo what he said, which was it was heavily involved with Arkham Asylum, so there was going to be a bunch of villains popping in, but the Mr. Freeze bits were more than a cameo. And it was beautiful and haunting.”
Sadly, none of this came to be. Affleck left the role of Batman behind after Justice League. While he returned for a relatively small role in The Flash, that was the end of his run. Robert Pattinson took over for director Matt Reeves in his version of The Batman, released in 2022. The Batman Part II is currently casting up and is set to begin filming very soon. It’s due to arrive next year after several major delays.
The Batman Part II hits theaters on October 1, 2027.
What do you think? Are you bummed that Ben Affleck’s solo Batman movie didn’t happen? Would you like to see Mr. Freeze return to the big screen? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!
