Ben Affleck is apparently so great in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that Warner Bros.* is requesting he receive more screen time in the film.
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Update (September 10): The rumors are true! Speaking with The Daily Beast this week, Snyder confirmed that there will be more Batman, but not necessarily because Ben Affleck is putting on an impressive performance.
“Only in that because it’s a different Batman than the Batman that was in the Chris Nolan movies,” he said, “so we have a little bit more explaining to do and you just had a whole Superman movie. But I think only in that way, because you need to understand where Batman is with everything. And that’s more toward the beginning, but it evens back out as it goes on.”
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Original story (September 8): Heroic Hollywood, an often-correct resource for superhero-related movie news, is reporting that the studio has requested that Batman’s presence in Dawn of Justice be beefed up because he’s outperforming Henry Cavil’s Superman. “The latest hot rumor I am hearing is that Warners is requesting more Batman be put into the movie and less Superman,” Heroic Hollywood writes. “Supposedly, Ben Affleck’s Batman is so good that he is blowing Henry Cavill’s Superman right off the screen.”
It hasn’t been easy to get a feel for Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman through the Dawn of Justice trailers that have been released, but the Comic-Con trailer makes the film’s story clear: Batman is pissed at Superman for the events of Man of Steel.
Heroic Hollywood specifically stating the studio is requesting “less Superman” is certainly interesting since the red-caped hero is the titular star. One would assume that Batman and Superman would have roughly the same amount of screen time in a movie that features both of their names in the title.
Director Zack Snyder is already playing a tricky balancing game with the characters in the film — in addition to Batman and Superman, the film will also feature Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, and a couple other big faces who will get their own films over the next few years.
If this rumor is true, we expect Snyder will only make minor changes to give Batman a few extra minutes. We doubt the studio is requesting anything close to a major facelift.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opens this March and will kick off a lengthy slate of Justice League-related movies at Warner Brothers. Up next is Suicide Squad starring Jared Leto in 2016, followed by Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Justice League Part One in 2017. Beginning in 2018 we’ll see six more Justice League films over 3 years.
*No word yet if this rumor originated at Warner Brothers or the office of Ben Affleck’s publicists.