After months and months of mounting evidence that Warner Bros. has no intention of pushing forward with plans for Justice League 2 anytime soon, all it’s taken is one little sentence from Variety to get the internet’s hopes up again. And just to make this rumor a little weirder, it’s also being said that the movie will see Ben Affleck reprise his role as the Caped Crusader.
The claim comes in an article that charts Affleck’s “action star evolution” across ten movies. In the blurb discussing his turn in 2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, the following line is added:
“Affleck will be portray the Dark Knight once again in the announced Justice League sequel.”
While some DC fans have been jumping on this quote as evidence that Justice League 2 is happening after all, it feels like a safe bet that the sentence is based on nothing more than outdated info. Think of it this way: If Variety really had a scoop this big, why on earth would they only mention it in passing as part of a larger article that barely mentions Justice League? And seeing how the piece is now ten days old, why has no other major outlet picked up on the news?
In short, the fans should probably calm down a little, and believe Affleck when he tells us that he’s done playing Batman. As for Justice League 2, while we probably can’t rule out the movie happening somewhere down the line, DCEU producer Peter Safran downplayed the idea just earlier this month, telling THR:
“I think that when you’re making really strong stand-alone movies, there’s really no need to bring them together. You want to give these characters room to breathe and live, and tell their stories.”
After Aquaman put the franchise commercially back on track, focusing on standalone outings might well be the right move, but we’ll find out if the DCEU can keep its commercial momentum when Shazam! hits theaters on April 5th.