WhenBen Afflecksigned on to star as Batman inBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it was a curious move in his career. He had just come off of winning the Best Picture Oscar forArgoand was preparing to direct his Prohibition-era dramaLive by Nightsoon, but the filmmaker side of Affleck kept getting postponed on account of acting opportunities that he couldn’t pass up. First it was working withDavid FincheronGone Girl, then it was playing freaking Batman. So while Affleck’s presence as a performer inBatman v Supermanwas impressive, it was also an interesting move coming from Affleck the filmmaker.
But when it came time to reprise his role as Batman inJustice League—withLive by Nightfinally in the can—Affleck’s presence on the film was upped from simply “star” to “star/executive producer”, as the latter title wasofficially given to Affleck a few weeks into filming. Some took this as a sign of Affleck having a bigger creative presence on the picture in the wake ofBatman v Superman’s less-than-stellar reaction, and when Collider’s own Steve Weintraub visited theJustice Leagueset last week along with a few other reporters, the question was put to Affleck: what does his executive producer title mean, exactly?
“Why I’m an executive producer is that I’m directing one of the movies. So there’s sort of this cross pollination of story and characters and I don’t want to give any of that stuff away, but it basically means that there are some things that might happen in my Batman that are affected by I mean, here we are in the police station in Gotham City. There’s a potential that something like this might exist in that story.”
That other movie that Affleck is referring to is astandaloneBatmanmoviethat he’s co-writing withGeoff Johnsand will direct, and Affleck says the “executive producer” credit helps him ensure that there is continuity between these iterations of Batman onscreen:
“So it’s a creative way that DC came up with of kind of being a filmmaker-driven company and entity and also making sure that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing and so that there’s collaboration and supervision. So that somebody doesn’t go sailing off, causing problems for your movie with their movie. You know, in a way, it’s also a kind of a courtesy. You know what they’re doing, one hand knows what the other is doing, and I get to weigh in on stuff that impacts the Batman stuff.”
Snyder holds an executive producer credit onWonder Woman, so it’s not unprecedented, although it’s not likeAquamandirectorJames WanandThe FlashdirectorRick Famuyiwahave EP credits onJustice League, that we know of. Regardless, it’s certainly nice to know that Affleck is taking ownership of his role as Batman.
For much more of ourJustice Leagueset visit coverage, peruse the links below:
