It’s no secret the casting of Ben Affleck as an older, grizzled Batman in the upcoming Superman sequel has been met with mixed reactions. Now the actor talks a bit more about overcoming the hurdle that is “fan expectation.”
On the Today Show, Affleck sat down with Matt Lauer and discussed the nature of Batman, and how it’s unlike any other film he’s done (due to its mass cultural appeal beyond just the movies). “Gone Girl,’ ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Batman,’ ‘Lord of the Rings’… We have these cultural stories that people have attachments to, they care very much about, the fans have imagined it, they write fan fiction, and they get very into it…So to have we all this attention, some of it’s positive, some of it’s negative, I think in the end the truth is, you make the movie and the movie works or it doesn’t.” He says.
As is the case with any good project, the writer/director combo is a key element that can make or break the release. In that regard, Affleck had nothing but good things to say, touting, “These guys did a pretty incredible job. Zack Snyder is the director and he’s working from a script by Chris Terrio, who wrote ‘ Argo ,’ and they really conceived it in a new and interesting way.”
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters on May 6 th , 2016.