Superman Batman Movie Met With Worry After Ben Affleck Casting

A Superman and Batman movie bringing together two of the most popular superheroes should be met with wild anticipation, but the casting of Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader has changed all that.

This week it was announced that Affleck will play Batman in the sequel to the Superman movie Man of Steel, and fans of both superhero series seem aghast at the news. Affleck doesn’t have a very good track record in superhero movies after bombing in Daredevil, and many wanted Christian Bale or Joseph Gordon-Levitt to take on the Batman role.

The Superman Batman movie is expected to explore the compelling and complicated relationship between the two superheroes, notes Tampa Bay Times writer and self-admitted “fanboy” Eric Deggans.

“The pair are do-gooders and polar opposites; Batman, the cynical loner who distrusts everyone and Superman, the earnest hero who believes in the essential goodness of man,” he writes.

But Deggans isn’t pessimistic the way many other fans have been. He said that Affleck is a good actor, as he showed in Argo, and has the benefit of Man of Steel director Zach Snyder who already pulled off the feat of reviving the Superman franchise.

Scott Meldelson, a Forbes contributor, said the casting of Ben Affleck in the Superman Batman movie is also a shrewd move on the part of Warner Bros.

“With Affleck’s casting, Warner Bros. gets a major press-friendly movie star who will bring attention and interest to the Superman/Batman film far beyond the geek-friendly circles,” he wrote. “Ben Affleck as Batman gets the film two years of periodic coverage not just in geek-centric movie websites but in every major tabloid and talk show, with fever pitch in all outlets in the months prior to release.”

But Mendelson and other pundits note that all of the publicity could backfire next July if Ben Affleck can’t pull off the role in the Superman Batman movie.