The Batman: 8 Reasons You Should Be Concerned Affleck Quit
1. We Could Have Had A Comic Book The Town
The single most important reason Ben Affleck's decision to jump ship is frustrating is that he's a phenomenally gifted film-maker. He has proved with the likes of Argo and The Town that he knows how to make classy, swaggering dramas on a full spectrum of action, and the latter in particular offered a vision that would have fit particularly well with Batman.
Affleck teased in the run up to Batman v Superman that his Batman was a battered, sagging hero - a heavyweight in the twelfth round - and that image very much fits his storytelling in The Town. To have a solo outing in which Batman is reluctantly drawn back to his past as he seeks a way out would have fit with ideas we've seen in the DCEU before (and indeed in Nolan's films), and we know from The Town that Affleck knows how to spin that tale.
For anyone who says we may still get the same story, since Affleck has written the script (or at least partly written it), you're fooling yourselves thinking there won't be significant rewrites when the new director comes in. That's just how Hollywood works, and if this is a Ben Affleck film in anything but acting, it will be a huge surprise now.
Are you frustrated that Ben Affleck is not directing The Batman now? Share your reactions below in the comments thread.