Ben Affleck Returning as Batman for ‘Flash’ Movie Opposite Michael Keaton
It will be two Batmen for the price of one, as the upcoming Flash movie will feature both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton reprising their role as the Caped Crusader.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, director Andy Muschietti confirmed that Affleck received the Flash script last week and agreed to join the film just this week.
The film will be based on the “Flashpoint” storyline from DC Comics, which featured Flash traveling to parallel dimensions, dubbed the “Multiverse.” In the DC Mutiverse, nearly infinite versions of DC Comic characters exist, allowing for realities in which Michael Keaton’s Batman and Ben Affleck’s Batman are possible though seemingly unaware of the presence of the other.
Robert Pattinson’s Batman theoritically exists in the Multiverse as well, although it doesn’t appear as though he will be part of this film. Keaton’s return as Batman in the film has announced earlier this year.
Ezra Miller, who last portrayed The Flash in 2017’s Justice League, has already experienced the potential of the DC Multiverse when he appeared in the TV crossover event “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” That crossover of the CW’s DC shows (including “Arrow” and “Supergirl,” among others) featured Miller’s cinematic Flash meeting Grant Gustin’s TV Flash.
Releasing in 2022, the Flash movie will see Miller’s character of Barry Allen traveling across the Multiverse to interact with Keaton’s Batman, as well as the Affleck Batman of his universe.
Affleck’s ‘Emotional Impact’
Muschietti, who helmed both chapters of the cinematic adaptation of Stephen King’s IT, told Vanity Fair that Affleck’s Batman will play a crucial role in the film. “He’s the baseline,” he said of Affleck’s Bruce Wayne. “He’s part of that unaltered state before we jump into Barry’s adventure. There’s a familiarity there.
“He’s a very substantial part of the emotional impact of the movie,” the director said. “The interaction and relationship between Barry and Affleck’s Wayne will bring an emotional level that we haven’t seen before. It’s Barry’s movie, it’s Barry’s story, but their characters are more related than we think. They both lost their mothers to murder, and that’s one of the emotional vessels of the movie. That’s where the Affleck Batman kicks in.”
Although it is unclear how big of a role Affleck will have in the film, we now know that Michael Keaton’s Batman (originally introduced in Tim Burton’s 1989 film) will have a “substantial” role in the film.
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