When Ben Affleck was cast as Bruce Wayne in Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice last year, it was immediately apparent that we’d be getting a very different Batman than any we’d seen before. At the time, Snyder said this about the choice to cast Affleck in the coveted role:
“[Affleck] has the acting chops to create a layered portrayal of a man who is older and wiser than Clark Kent and bears the scars of a seasoned crime fighter, but retain the charm that the world sees in billionaire Bruce Wayne”
When you took that statement and coupled it with the news that the film would be drawing some influences from Frank Miller’s beloved comic The Dark Knight Returns, it became pretty clear that this Batman would be weathered, with many years spent under the cape and cowl. However, how closely Batman V Superman adheres to Miller’s work is unknown. In the comic, Bruce is 55 years old, and has been retired for about a decade. Will Affleck’s Batman share similar circumstances?
According to one of the film’s producers, Affleck’s Bruce Wayne won’t be in his fifties, but will still be a bit older than we’re used to seeing. When speaking with the Ashbery Park Press, Michael Uslan said:
“So, [the Batman casting backlash] has happened time and again, and it happened with Affleck. To go back to the original though of Bruce Wayne in his mid-40s, I think he’s going to be extraordinary.”
So, there we have it. Affleck, 42, will be playing an older Bruce, but not one quite as old as Frank Miller’s. What does this mean for the film? Well, it means that he likely will be a seasoned crime fighter, and if Badass Digest’s reports are true he’ll have a few decades worth of Bat-time under his belt. That paints an interesting picture about the character and shows him in a light we’ve never seen before.
All of the onscreen iterations have shown a Bruce near the beginning of his Batman days. Christian Bale’s Batman was 30 in Batman Begins and had just hit 40 by the time The Dark Knight Rises came along. His Batman only roamed the streets of Gotham for about two years before hanging up the cape and cowl. The fact that Affleck’s has likely been at it since his twenties is staggering, and suggests that we’ll get an even darker and more troubled Dark Knight than we’ve seen in the past.
That also means that Batman has about ten years on Superman. Superman was 33 in Man of Steel, and Affleck is 11 years older than Henry Cavill. So, Supes may have the advantage powers-wise, but Bats definitely has seniority on him.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters on March 25th, 2016.