Matt Reeves’ Batman Movie Will No Longer Use Ben Affleck’s Script

When DC’s The Batman was originally announced, it was expected to be all Ben Affleck, all the time. The veteran actor was expected to not only star in the film, but also direct it based on a script he’d written. Then, Affleck decided to no longer direct so he could focus on perfecting the story. Then that started to fall through, as the script was expected to be re-written. Yesterday, new director Matt Reeves confirmed that the new story has basically nothing to do with anything Affleck worked on.

On MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Reeves said, when asked if he would be working with Affleck’s script, “No, it’s a new story. It’s just starting again. I’m excited about it. I think it’s going to be really cool.” While Affleck’s script reportedly had Deathstroke as the primary villain—even going so far as to cast Joe Manganiello for the part—we’re now back to square one as far as details. The only thing we know for sure is that Reeves wants a “noir” take on the character which is … pretty much exactly what everybody else does with Batman, anyway.

Despite Affleck’s diminishing role in the forthcoming film, many agree that Affleck’s portrayal of the dark knight was one of the highlights of the otherwise-underwhelming Batman v. Superman. For his part, Reeves is on a bit of a winning streak recently, with all four of his last films scoring well critically. Hopefully the pairing of the two will result in cinematic gold, even if the road to get there is a rocky one.

Check out our review of Reeve’s most recent film War for the Planet of the Apes right here.