10 Directors Who Should Helm The Batman (If Affleck Quits)

by Danny Meegan

1. Denis Villeneuve

Enemy Denis Villeneuve
A24 Films

Known For: Arrival, Sicario, Blade Runner 2049 (upcoming).

If someone were to make a list of the most talented directors working in Hollywood today, there's a good chance that Denis Villeneuve would make it pretty high on that list.

He's demonstrated his ability to work with action films (Sicario), thrillers (Prisoners) and sci-fi (Arrival), with the latter commonly being cited as one of the best movies of 2016.

Those three pillars would undoubtedly come in handy when directing The Batman, which needs strong action layered on top of a compelling story, and since the DCEU is a world full of gods and monsters, a tinge of sci-fi will probably be present, too - and Arrival proved Villeneuve can handle other-worldly concepts, but in a grounded way, which, if the film is to indeed involve a hint of the fantastical, is exactly what The Batman needs.

Villeneuve has even been likened to a young Christopher Nolan; the latter also made smaller, thought-provoking films like Memento and Following before jumping on-board with Batman, and given how well that turned out - history is firmly on Denis Villeneuve's side.

Agree with our picks? Have any of your own? Let us know down in the comments section!

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!