Last month, a report suggesting that Ben Affleck would leave the DC Extended Universe without playing the titular character in Matt Reeves' The Batman made the rounds online. In response, the actor assured fans that he loved playing the character and wanted to return to the role. But now, it appears that his kid brother Casey Affleck has suggested otherwise.
During a recent guest appearance on WEEI's sports radio show, host Rich Keefe - a self-described fan of Ben's Caped Crusader – asked Casey about the rumors. The Academy Award-winning actor jokingly responded that his older sibling was "an okay Batman", then added:
No, I thought he was great. He was great. He's a hero, so he had something to channel and work with there. But he's not gonna to do that movie, I don't think. Sorry to say.
When the host mentioned that Casey had just broken some major news, he quickly did an about-face:
Is that breaking news? Because I was just kind of making that up. I don't know.
Skip to around the six-minute point in the following video to see for yourself!
We hope that Ben Affleck will soon shed some light on his brother's remarks, but for now, we’ll have to be content with his views on his character in Justice League. While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the 45-year-old actor admitted that last year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice "departed a little bit from the traditional Batman":
He started out with all this rage directed at Superman, because of his coworkers who had died in the fight Superman had with Zod. He was holding on to a lot of anger, in a little bit of an irrational way.
However, the Batman we will see this November 17 is "much more traditional [and] heroic":
This is more the Batman you would find if you opened up your average Batman comic book. Not that it's average. I think it's a really cool story. Actually, it's sort of a story about multilateralism. It's not a bad theme to have!
