I should start this off by pointing out that when I heard the news that Heath Ledger was playing The Joker in The Dark Knight, I was openly condemning him. Up until that point, outside of Brokeback Mountain, I had never really seen him transform himself as an actor, and didn’t think of him in terms outside of Ten Things I Hate About You. For a moment, I thought they were going to try to go the”cool, good-looking Joker” route, which in hindsight is very stupid of me, but I am telling you this for a reason. When I finally saw what the Joker looked like in that film, I was in awe, and that awe only tripled when I heard his drugged-out drawl and saw the odd, lip-licking mannerisms that Heath injected into that character.
My point is, I am doing that exact thing again, and though I am catching myself this time, I cannot seem to stop myself, either. I know that I need to reserve ALL JUDGEMENT until the film has come out, but yet, as someone who writes about movies for a living, it is also my job to speculate, and complain, and inject my two cents, regardless of who likes it and who agrees or not. And honestly, I will be the first one to come back here and write a follow up saying I was wrong if I end up being wrong, which could very well happen, so hold me to that.
That massive disclaimer out of the way, I, like most of the world, was rather unhappy at the sudden news that Ben Affleck had been cast as Batman in the forthcoming Batman V Superman. Though I was never a huge fan of Bale’s Batman (eat a Sucrets, dude), he got the job done, and it is safe to say Affleck will, too. But getting the job done just isn’t enough for me. Batman is one of the coolest men ever in fiction, and I want a Batman that is going to truly resonate with me. So I thought: what if I had been given the chance to cast this Batman film? What direction would I have gone?
It’s safe to say that some of these choices may piss some people off, but let’s be honest, isn’t that half the reason I’m here? As odd as some of these may be, I do think the majority of them are spot on, and I give my reasons for picking them in every example.
So, without further ado, here are 6 actors who would make a better Batman than Big Ben.