Anticipation for the Justice League movie is ramping up, with fans hoping for a course correction in the DC Extended Universe. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, star Ben Affleck plays up the idea of November’s team-up movie taking a mulligan on the Caped Crusader after his brutal, nonsensically angry depiction in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. In fact, the actor wants fans to know they’re getting the comic book Batman this time.
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“’BvS’ departed a little bit from the traditional Batman,” says Affleck. “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, whereas this is a much more traditional Batman. He’s heroic. He does things in his own way, but he wants to save people, help people. This is more in keeping with the canon of how Batman’s usually been portrayed, and how he’s portrayed vis a vis the Justice League in the comics. This is more the Batman you would find if you opened up your average Batman comic book. Not that it’s average.”
Not unlike Joss Whedon’s first Avengers, which was all about disparate heroes putting aside their differences to work together, Affleck sees the Justice League itself in the same terms as the United Nations.
“I think it’s a really cool story,” Affleck adds. “Actually, it’s sort of a story about multilateralism. It’s not a bad theme to have! He’s put in this position of having to reach out, find other people, convincing them to do something. Part of the drama of the movie is the question of whether or not the team is going to come together. It’s very different from the tenor of the last movie.”
As for the persistent rumors dogging Affleck (who turned 45 yesterday) that he will not portray the character again in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the actor’s Oscar-winning brother Casey Affleck added fuel to the fire by telling Boston’s WEEI 93.7FM, “He’s not gonna do that movie, I don’t think… is that breaking news? I was just kinda making that up!” We’ll see how things pan out, but news of Daniel Craig returning to Bond today gives us hope for Batfleck.
Fueled by the hero’s restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Justice League sees Bruce Wayne enlist the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Directed by Zack Snyder (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel), the screenplay is by Chris Terrio from a story by Snyder and Terrio. Filmmaker Joss Whedon is directing the additional photography for the sequel and is overseeing the completion of its post production following Snyder’s family tragedy. Justice League is produced by Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Jon Berg and Geoff Johns. The executive producers are Jim Rowe, Wesley Coller, Curt Kanemoto, Chris Terrio and Ben Affleck.
Justice League will open in theaters on November 17, 2017.
