When Ben Affleck was announced as the new Batman, the fans were outraged. Things calmed down when Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was finally released, and some even called him the best Dark Knight to appear on the silver screen.
Afterward, when the actor/director was announced to helm the first solo installment of the Caped Crusader in the DCEU, things looked even brighter - Ben Affleck had already proved himself as a competent director, with the critically acclaimed The Town and Gone Baby Gone, as well as Argo, which won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture.
However, it seems that writing the script for The Batman is taking forever. Ben Affleck updates the fans from time to time, adding that he'll never do a film without being ready for it. But with Live by Night failing to meet expectations, the actor has changed his tune. When asked during a recent interview with The Guardian whether The Batman will be his next movie, he said that nothing is set in stone:
That’s the idea. But it's not a set thing and there's no script. If it doesn't come together in a way I think is really great, I'm not going to do it.
And this statement can’t be more different from what he said previously. Maybe he now feels the pressure of having to direct huge movies - and maybe he doesn't really like it, given the fact that Live by Night, which had the biggest budget of all of the movies he’s directed, hasn't been the critics' darling.
Whether he directs The Batman or not, we’re certainly going to see Ben Affleck in a couple more DCEU movies, starting with this year's Justice League.