•Ben Affleck has named his time filming Justice League as the lowest point of his acting career, citing a “so, so negative” set marked by studio conflict and personal turmoil.
Affleck spoke about the experience on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, explaining why he will likely never return to playing Batman. He starred as the character in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and 2017’s Justice League, with a small role in 2023’s The Flash. He had been set to direct, produce, co-write, and star in a solo Batman film before stepping away.
The production was troubled from the start. Original director Zack Snyder stepped away in May 2017 after his daughter died by suicide, and Warner Bros. brought in Joss Whedon, director of the Avengers films, to complete post-production and direct roughly two months of reshoots.
“I really saw how not to make a movie like that when the studio is at odds with the filmmaker. You’re really making a mistake,” Affleck said. “That was what really doomed that.”
Ben Affleck
Affleck attributed the film’s problems to tension between Warner Bros. and Snyder following the poor critical and commercial reception of Batman v Superman. He said he was “glad and gratified” that Snyder later returned to tell his own version, released in 2021 as Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Cast members including Ray Fisher (Cyborg) and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) have publicly described negative experiences on set with Whedon. Affleck called the reshoots “shitty” and “the low point” of his career.
“The whole environment and vibe, much of which I wasn’t privy to, but that I sort of heard about secondhand in terms of Ray [Fisher] and Gal [Gadot] and other people’s experiences, it was just like, ‘Wow, this is about as gross as it gets.’
Ben Affleck
Affleck said Warner Bros. used Snyder’s personal tragedy as an “excuse” to remove him from the film, calling it “one of the shittiest things I’d ever seen.” Reports after Justice League’s release indicated that Warner Bros. had fired Snyder before he publicly announced his departure.
The fallout has had lasting consequences: Whedon’s career has largely stalled following harassment and abuse allegations from Fisher, Gadot, and others who worked with him. Snyder has since made several films for Netflix, including the Rebel Moon series. Affleck’s latest film, Animals, was recently released on Netflix and is reportedly already a streaming hit.
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