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Ben Affleck's biggest regret about his Batman was that what he and Zack Snyder planned was so dark even his son tuned out
The tone of Ben Affleck's appearances in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League, and The Flash alienated a core part of superhero audiences, he feels
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To delve into the world of Batman is to dance with a bit of darkness. And Ben Affleck now feels that his work with Zack Snyder went too far into the dark, since it alienated his son.
Looking back at his career in an interview with GQ, Affleck shared his thoughts on what happened during his time as the DCEU's Batman. "In terms of creatively, I really think that I like the idea and the ambition that I had for it, which was of the sort of older, broken, damaged Bruce Wayne. And it was something we really went for in [Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice]," Affleck said. "But what happened was it started to skew too old for a big part of the audience. Like even my own son at the time was too scared to watch the movie. And so when I saw that I was like, 'Oh shit, we have a problem.'"
We have our fair share of dark movies with Batman, but I think there's a distinction that comes with Snyder's Batman v Superman film. The Tim Burton movies were wonderfully gothic, but they still had a sense of camp to them that softened their edges, even if the scene in Batman Returns where The Penguin bites off a man's nose traumatized a young Domhnall Gleeson. Batman v Superman, in contrast, features a scene where Superman's pal, Jimmy Olsen gets shot in the head by terrorists. A world where Superman slacks off and fails to save his best friend is too scary for me, an adult man. Let's also remember that Batman goes around branding people in Gotham in that film, too. Good grief.
By the time The Flash rolled around for Affleck, Warner Bros. seemed to be on the same page with making his Batman friendlier to younger audiences. Affleck brought a lot of charisma to the role, and was one of the biggest bright spots in that film. So in the end, he did get some redemption. Some.
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