In the weeks following James Gunn’s unveiling of his DC Universe slate, some details are continuing to sharpen up. For one, last night Gunn confirmed – after much speculation – that he will indeed be directing the Superman: Legacy script that he’s been penning for a while now, designed to bring an all-new take on Kal-El to the screen. Another cause for speculation was whether Ben Affleck might end up in the director’s chair for any future DC projects, years after he was potentially down to helm a Batman movie. But now, he’s pretty definitively ruled himself out.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Affleck made it clear that those aren’t stories he’s interested in telling right now. “I would not direct something for the [James] Gunn DC. Absolutely not,” he says. “I have nothing against James Gunn. Nice guy, sure he’s going to do a great job. I just wouldn’t want to go in and direct in the way they’re doing that. I’m not interested in that.”
It comes off the back of comments, in the same interview, about his experience playing Bruce Wayne in the Snyderverse era of the DCEU. “I was going to direct a Batman, and [Justice League] made me go, ‘I’m out. I never want to do any of this again. I’m not suited’,” he says. “That was the worst experience I’ve ever seen in a business which is full of some shitty experiences. It broke my heart. There was an idea of someone [Joss Whedon] coming in, like, ‘I’ll rescue you and we’ll do 60 days of shooting and I’ll write a whole thing around what you have. I’ve got the secret.’ And it wasn’t the secret. That was hard. And I started to drink too much. I was back at the hotel in London, it was either that or jump out the window.” The experience gave him a new perspective on his priorities. “I thought, ‘I don’t want to participate in this in any way. And I don’t want to squander any more of my life, of which I have a limited amount’,” he says.
Instead, Affleck’s next film as director is Air – the story behind Nike launching its Air Jordan shoe, coming to cinemas in April, followed by a release on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. It’s yet to be seen which directors will take on the other projects Gunn announced for DC – from The Authority, to Batman movie The Brave And The Bold, to Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow. And will James Mangold actually sign on for the Swamp Thing movie? Stay tuned…