January 28, 2014 – What’s the difference?
Affleck opened up in a new interview to start the year about his “older and wider” Batman and how different he will be from the previous Batmen seen on the big screen.
“I don’t want to give away too much, but the idea for the new Batman is to redefine him in a way that doesn’t compete with the Bale and Chris Nolan Batman but still exists within the Batman canon. It will be an older and wiser version, particularly as he relates to Henry Cavill’s Superman character.”
He also spoke about the fan reaction to his casting.
“I understand I’m at a disadvantage with the internet. If I thought the result would be another Daredevil, I’d be out there picketing myself. [laughs] Why would I make the movie if I didn’t think it was going to be good and that I could be good in it?”
February 5, 2014 – Seriously, who HASN’T seen the Batfleck picture?
A week later, Matt Damon would speak once again about his friend taking on the role, and revealed that he had also seen an image of Affleck in the new suit.
“I’ve seen a picture, I have seen a picture. It’s excellent. And I’ve talked to him about the storyline, and it’s great. Look I’ve known him for thirty-something years, I’d be the first guy being like ‘Buddy, what are you doing?’ but I think the movie is going to be great.”
April 4, 2014 – “Real Superhero Look”
You know a movie is going to be big when even the people working in positions the internet normally wouldn’t care about start getting asked questions, and Ben Affleck’s trainer was one of them back in April. He was asked about Affleck’s goals for getting in shape for the film to which he replied:
“Big muscular yet lean and good body symmetry! Going for the Real-life superhero look!”
April 17, 2014 – Soooo, Why Batman?
Two weeks later, director Zack Snyder was asked “So, why include Batman in a sequel to Man of Steel?” which prompted this response:
“After Man of Steel finished and we started talking about what would be in the next movie, I started subtly mentioning that it would be cool if he faced Batman. In the first meeting, it was like, “Maybe Batman?” Maybe at the end of the second movie, some Kryptonite gets delivered to Bruce Wayne’s house or something. Like in a cryptic way, that’s the first time we see him. But then, once you say it out loud, right? You’re in a story meeting talking about, like, who should [Superman] fight if he fought this giant alien threat Zod who was basically his equal physically, from his planet, fighting on our turf… You know, who to fight next? The problem is, once you say it out loud, then it’s kind of hard to go back, right? Once you say, “What about Batman?” then you realize, “Okay, that’s a cool idea. What else?” I mean, what do you say after that?”
Snyder also further teased the existence of images of Affleck in the costume, saying:
“I’m actually staring at one right now in my office. And it’s just massive on my wall in my office and it’s epic, let me tell you! And I’m like, “God, I want to send this to the Internet immediately.” But I know I’m not allowed to!”
May 12, 2014 – Say, what’s under that tarp?
The day many had been waiting for was here! Sort of. About a month later, director Zack Snyder took to Twitter to tease the brand new Batmobile for the film and teased that he’d “pull the tarp” the following day.
May 13, 2014 – That’s him!
As he promised, Snyder not only pulled the tarp on the new Batmobile but also gave us our first look at Ben Affleck in the costume. This resulted in much more enthusiastic comments than Affleck’s initial casting.
Snyder’s nonchalant tweet read: “I shot this with my @Leica_Camera M Monochrom. #Batman #Batmobile #Gotham”
May 20, 2014 – Kevin knows his colors
A week after the image was revealed, noted Bat-fan and scribe Kevin Smith once again spoke about the costume, this time confirming the color pallet for the suit:
“If you want to see what this f***ing suit looks like, you just go to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, go to the third book, Hunt the Dark Knight…it’s the exact f***ing outfit he’s wearing. That’s why I hugged that guy all those months ago.”
Jump over to page 4 to recap the title reveal, the solo rumors, and more!
