Kevin Smith Has An Idea On Why Ben Affleck Bailed On Directing ‘The Batman’

Earlier this week, we’d reported that Warner Bros. and Ben Affleck had announced that Affleck was cutting his losses and dropped out as director from the upcoming solo Batman film. While he will still remain on as producer and star (as well as having co-written the script), the hunt is back on for a replacement director. This move doesn’t come as a huge surprise, with our own Jude Terror having been on the case over the past few months as we watched Affleck waffle (check some of those pieces out here and here).

Armchair quarterbacks have come out of the woodwork with a range of ideas as to the reasons behind the move, and now one of the Chief Justices of Geekdom, Kevin Smith has weighed in with his opinions during his latest episode of Fat-Man on Batman alongside Marc Bernardin. Smith’s position is that the reason is everyone has been trying to make a great Batman film, and each time they fall short and get lambasted by press and fans alike. He continues that the greatest Batman film has already been made, and that was Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Since that’s the litmus against all future adventures of the Caped Crusader, Smith believes that Affleck knows he couldn’t direct something to the same level, and so decided to save himself the grief and hand the baton over to someone else.

That’s a suitably reasonable explanation – at least as solid as many of the other ideas that’ve been floating around out there (personally I still like the one about him having been abducted by space aliens and replaced by a non-directing clone). What I find troubling about it, is if that is the case, the bulk of the responsibility rests with the story that’s being told in the first place. Affleck and Geoff Johns co-wrote the initial script for The Batman, and has now undergone a significant rewrite by Batman v. Superman’s rewriter, Chris Terrio. So while the director carries a large amount of the responsibility for a film’s final quality, it also needs a solid script and performances. Since Terrio did BvS, people will be already predisposed to either be happy by this news or even more concerned, depending on how they liked that earlier result. However on the upside, he was also the rewriter for Affleck’s Oscar Winning film Argo, so that means he has some experience and success with working with Affleck’s writing.

It’ll be unfortunate if Affleck does manage to get a director in place that does their best with what they’re given, but they’re then pilloried because they are given a Superman Returns-level story. So, time will tell. However while we’re waiting, we’re still having fun with our poll of who we think should be the next Batman director – check it out here and chime in with who you think should do it. Yes, I do think George Miller would be amazing – but he would also need to be given time to do it, and to not be ridden by the studio, neither of which are things that Warner Bros. would ever be likely to allow for any director.

You can watch Smith and Bernardin’s discussion in full below: