Debate of the Day: Seth Green Thinks Ben Affleck Will Be a Bad Batman

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I think we’re all waiting to decide on Ben Affleck as Batman until we see a trailer or at least a costume now, but uber fanboy Seth Green recently talked about the concept with Larry King. In short, he’s not sold on Affleck in the role, and here’s why:

“Modern mainstream is accepting of interpretations of these characters with more gravitas, you know. We’re past the time of Adam West’s kind of goofy interpretation of Batman. You gotta remember that at the core of that character, Batman’s a crazy person. Batman has no powers. Batman is a rich, screwed up kid whose parents were killed in front of him.  If this movie is meant to be the idealistic alien, humans before all else Superman, and this is supposed to be the grizzled weathered Batman who’s been living in Gotham, fighting crime himself for 10 years, you need a guy who’s older, you need a guy who’s got more weight, you need a guy that a Henry Cavill Superman is gonna be actually scared of.”

When pressed that “acting” should solve that problem, he continues.

“Yes, but, there is only so much that you can act a role before people are or are not going to believe you in that role. I’m never going to play, um, you know, an MMA fighter, because I’d step into the ring with an actual MMA fighter like Batista and I wouldn’t look correct.”

I don’t really think Affleck is as far from Batman as Green is from Batista, but I understand what he’s going for. I think Green is assuming that the movie is going to be a fully-fledged recreation of The Dark Knight Returns, where Batman is pushing sixty, and is super grizzled, old and terrifying. While I think they may take some ideas from that book, I don’t think this is going to be a one-to-one translation, so Affleck’s age might work.

What do you think?

[via GeekTyrant]

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6 Comments

  1. This is kinda dumb. Ben Affleck is ten years older than Cavill, and with some more grey would look fifteen years older convincingly. He’s also three inches taller, and there’s no reason he couldn’t put on a lot of muscle. As far as lack of gravitas, has Seth Green seen any of Affleck’s movies lately? Dude does dark and broody pretty convincingly. The biggest issue is that it’s going to be really hard to forget that it’s Ben Affleck. There’s a reason superhero movies usually go with somebody who isn’t an established star: it makes it very hard for audiences to identify the character as the character, rather than the actor.

  2. Given that the internet has been wrong about Batman casting before, I’m refusing to pass judgment until I see at least a trailer. That said, it’s a tough sell. Still, I think it is possible. So, we’ll see what happens. I doubt that the movie would go the route of a 60 year old super grizzled Batman though. Could be wrong, but I don’t think they’d do that.

  3. I suspect you’re right about the level of similarity to TDKR. Unless Seth Green has some sort of inside info on what the movie is about, I’m not sure his concerns about Affleck not fitting into that mold are legit. Batman’s a character who can survive a lot of interpretation, and not that hard to pull off on a basic level; I’m sure Affleck is up to the task.

  4. Affleck needs to be HUGE to play batman. that’s it. I’m sure he convincing enough, but only if he gets super jacked. this is the reason i had a hard time believing Christian Bale as batman, who i still dont think should have been cast; even though the movies are good.

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