Ever since Ben Affleck was chosen to be the Dark Knight in the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice film, DC fans have been in an uproar. Things have died down since, but there are still a selected few who believe Warner Bros. should have gone with another actor, namely Josh Brolin.
It has been long rumored that Josh Brolin was Zack Snyder's first choice, but as it stands, it appears Warner Bros. had no interest in signing Brolin, as the studio had already settled on Ben Affleck even before giving the actor the heads up.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice producer, Charles Roven, has cleared the air in an interview with Hollywood Reporter. According to Roven, Warner Bros. was more interested in an actor that is mature and with a huge physicality. The studio wanted a Batman that is taller than Superman, and only Ben Affleck fitted the script.
"He was the first guy we went to. That's who we wanted," said Roven. "We knew that we wanted a very mature Batman, because we wanted to juxtapose him with this very young Superman. So we wanted a guy who was tougher, rugged, who had signs of life, who had lived a hard life, and we wanted the guy to have chops, for sure. So when we went down that list, there just weren't a tremendous number of guys who could carry that."
It would be interesting to know what Zack Snyder really thinks about not being able to cast Josh Brolin, because the actor did confirm that Snyder approached him first, but it didn't work out.
Brolin is clearly not happy about what happened, but he's better off now since he landed the role as Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Only time will tell if Ben Affleck turns out to be a solid Batman, one that is capable of walking in the shoe of Christian Bale, Val Kilmer, and Michael Keaton. It won't be an easy task for Affleck, especially with the fans over his shoulder; some hoping for success, others praying that he might fail to prove a point.
