Ben Affleck is officially out as Batman. He's gone from starring and directing in Worlds of DC's first solo movie for the Caped Crusader to washing his hands of it altogether.
"I tried to direct a version of it and worked with a really good screenwriter, but just couldn't come up with a version – I couldn't crack it," the one-time Batfleck told Jimmy Kimmel. "And so it was time to let someone take a shot at it. They've got some really good people."
Batfleck was always a controversial proposition from the outset (though not without his supporters too, of course), and his brief tenure as the Dark Knight was dogged with controversy. So what did Warner Bros get wrong, and how can it fix the Caped Crusader in The Batman and beyond?
Stay true to the character
Hardcore fans were immediately turned off by Affleck's debut in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, thanks to Zack Snyder's flouting of some basic rules integral to Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter ego (it's fair to say that similar criticisms can be directed at Henry Cavill's version of Superman).
BvS saw Bats attacking a warehouse of criminals with the guns mounted on his Batwing, breaking his two golden rules:
• He doesn't kill
• He doesn't use guns
These rules stem from the fact that his parents were shot to death in front of Bruce when he was a child, the event that led him to become a crimefighter and is pretty damn integral to his character.
There are smaller things, too, like the famously secretive meeting Aquaman for the first time in Justice League and immediately revealing his secret identity, which they proceed to chat about loudly in public.
Warner Bros needs to demonstrate that it understands and respects Batman, or risk alienating fans and diluting the character. There's a difference between Batman and the Punisher for a reason, and DC needs to remember that.
There's such a thing as too dark
As already observed, there's no getting away from Batman's dark past as an orphan who saw his parents murdered in front of him. But there's dark and then there's Super Grimdark.
We're not suggesting a return to the comedic Adam West incarnation of the Caped Crusader – let alone George Clooney's Bat Credit Card-wielding version – but there's a balance to be struck. Batfleck was a sad, middle-aged dude who had lost everyone and everything he ever loved (other than his platonic life partner Alfred), and it's revealed that the Joker straight-up murdered Robin.
Even Christian Bale's tortured Dark Knight was given flashes of humanity and humour – and even achieved a happy ending. Warners needs to find the delight in being Batman, not just the gloom.
Have fun with Bruce Wayne
On a related note, there's a lot of fun to be had contrasting Batman's civilian identity as billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne against his superhero persona.
There's a fascinating tension between the two identities – in many respects, it is the womanising, happy-go-lucky Wayne who is the mask that Batman wears to hide who he really is. This was touched upon best in Batman Begins, when Wayne goes out partying in an attempt to distance the two personas so that no one would suspect they are the same.
Batfleck largely obliterated this tension, and as he interacted mainly with his friends and allies there was no place for it in those stories. But it's a key part of Batman, and an opportunity to have some fun with the character.
Give us some new villains
Batman has a huge rogues gallery, with loads of weird, wonderful and well-known villains to choose from. But there is a danger of always circling back to the same tried-and-tested characters.
Worlds of DC was half on track with this before the Batfleck exit, having announced that Joe Manganiello would play the assassin Deathstroke opposite Batfleck in The Batman. He had a brief cameo at the end of Justice League, but his future in the series has a huge question mark over it now that Affleck is leaving.
This is all a roundabout way of saying that we really don't want to see Batman vs The Joker again (or Bane, or Catwoman for that matter). Heath Ledger's peerless performance in The Dark Knight still wasn't very long ago, and even if Jared Leto's take in Suicide Squad had been less… divisive, it was still far too early to bring him back.
Black Mask and Victor Zsasz are coming to the Birds of Prey film, and that's a good sign. Let's keep taking advantage of those many rogues (our fingers are crossed for The Eraser).
Don't lose your nerve
There were plenty of valid criticisms of Batfleck from his BvS debut, and we've no doubt that Warner Bros heard them, considering what happened next.
After his cameo in Suicide Squad, he returned in his next full appearance in Justice League. By this point, you can feel that the filmmakers had lost faith in Batfleck's initial portrayal. They attempt to make him a more jovial figure, taking a leaf out of the Iron Man/Robert Downey Jr playbook. This attempt is a serious misstep, a U-turn that resulted in this Batman feeling like a completely different character from the one we met before.
(This was a problem for Justice League overall, after Snyder's exit and Joss Whedon coming in as his replacement, apparently with an entirely new tone and direction for the film. Hence the continued demands for the 'Snyder cut', which might indeed have stuck more closely to the original Batfleck portrayal).
The next version of Batman might come under as much fire as Batfleck did, but DC needs to commit fully to its vision for the character from the outset, and not try to drastically course correct later on. That's a surefire way to end up pleasing no one.
If they stick to only one thing on this list, we hope it's that they have faith in what they are doing with the Dark Knight.
