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

7. Gavin O'Connor

TheWrap's Awards Season Screening Series Presents 'Warrior' - Q&A
2011 Getty Images

Known For: Warrior, The Accountant, Jane Got A Gun.

For the simple fact that he just directed Ben Affleck in The Accountant, a movie about an incredibly intelligent, deadly businessman who leads two lives (sound familiar?) Gavin O'Connor would be a fitting choice to helm the solo Batman movie.

That pre-existing relationship with Ben Affleck will help a great deal, especially since the actor will be scripting the movie, and will have a big say in the direction it will take. Because the two have worked together before, they'll know each other's strengths, weaknesses and sensibilities, and should be able to apply the dynamic that made The Accountant such a strong effort, to The Batman.

O'Connor also helmed sports movie Warrior, about a pair of boxing brothers who come face-to-face in the final of a tournament. The fight scenes here are incredibly kinetic, brutal and hard-hitting - like something out of a Bourne movie.

A Batman film featuring this type of hand-to-hand combat is something we've never seen done before, and could take the traditional perception of superhero action - outlandish, glitzy, overly choreographed - and give it a fresh spin.

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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!