At virtually precisely this time final yr, information broke that Ben Affleck was coming again to Batman, reprising his function because the Caped Crusader in James Wan’s Aquaman 2, aka Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Affleck stated he was completed enjoying Batman in DC’s live-action films all the best way again in 2019 — he even had a send-off ceremony for his run because the character. Previously he performed Bruce Wayne in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, then reprised the function in Justice League and cameoed in the David Ayer version of Suicide Squad.
But Jason Momoa took to Instagram in 2022 to disclose that Affleck would return as Batman in the Aquaman sequel, then scheduled for launch in March 2023. Numerous scheduling adjustments for each Aquaman 2 and The Flash messed with that plan, and now The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that after a number of rounds of reshoots, Batman has been minimize from Aquaman 2 completely.
That change is a little much less shocking for individuals who did see The Flash when it lastly hit theaters in June, after being repeatedly bumped from its unique July 2022 launch date. The Flash soft-resets DC’s cinematic universe, first letting Michael Keaton return to the Batman function, then bringing in one other visitor star for a comedian cameo. Releasing The Flash forward of Aquaman 2 created a continuity downside: After Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) messes with the continuity of the universe, Ben Affleck is not Batman in his world. So how would he return to play the function in Aquaman 2?
According to the THR report, the Aquaman 2 Batman cameo initially featured Michael Keaton, who shot scenes for the function. When the discharge schedule modified and Aquaman 2 regarded like it will be launched first, Affleck was introduced in to reshoot that cameo. With director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran taking on the DC cinematic universe, the choice was reportedly made to chop the cameo altogether to keep away from confusion. “The latest cut of the film features neither version of the Dark Knight, according to sources, as new DC heads James Gunn and Peter Safran do not want to promise a movie universe that will not come to fruition, nor tie it down excessively to past failures,” THR studies.
There’s nonetheless time for that to vary but once more — Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom at present isn’t scheduled for launch till December 2023. But a lot of the purpose of placing Gunn and Safran in cost was a new give attention to robust management and decision-making in a firm that stored altering techniques round its films, veering from a shared-universe imaginative and prescient for its superheroes to a sequence of unrelated one-offs. And Gunn has been significantly vocal and particular about his plans for the brand new DC Universe. So we could have seen the final of Batfleck in spite of everything — no less than till Aquaman 2 hits house video, and the deleted scenes begin leaking on-line.
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