How Daredevil Inspired Ben Affleck to Join Batman V Superman

Before Ben Affleck became the caped crusader in the DCEU and one of the best working directors, his career went offtrack in his first superhero outing. In the early 2000s, Affleck took his chance to be a superhero in the form of playing Matt Murdock, the blind vigilante known as Daredevil. Instead of building on the superhero success of X-Men and Spider-Man, Daredevil was hated by viewers, regardless of their affinity for the source material. Years later he could still not distance himself from the film and it was the cause of plenty of criticisms about his casting as Batman over three years ago.

Little did everyone know that his portrayal of Batman in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice has arguably been the biggest bright spot to come out of the DCEU to this point. While it may now be easy to forgive Affleck for his previous superhero adventure, without it he may have never put on a costume again.

Affleck was present at a TimesTalk Q&A (via Huffington Post) where he discussed the influence that Daredevil had on him playing Batman, in addition to him also giving an update on the script of The Batman. For him, he looked at the chance to play Batman as a redemption for the wrong he previously committed. How wrong was it? Even Affleck admits to hating the film.


That’s the movie I want to do. I want to be a part of that. Part of it was I wanted for once to get one of these movies and do it right – to do a good version. I hate Daredevil so much.

How Daredevil Inspired Ben Affleck to Join Batman V Superman
While he may hate the movie he was involved in, that has not changed his stance on the hero itself. In fact, he says that he has liked what Marvel and Netflix have done on Daredevil, wishing that was what they could’ve done.

It frustrated me. The Netflix show does really cool stuff. I feel like that was there for us to do with that character, and we never kind of got it right. I wanted to do one of those movies and sort of get it right.

It is interesting to hear Affleck’s rationale behind suiting up once again as a different character years later. Similar to how there are people that still do not forgive Affleck and his Daredevil film, it appears as though he is right there as well. However, instead of dwelling in that sense of defeat, he has come out of the criticism and delivered a ruthless Batman in Batman V Superman.

Ben Affleck Batman V Superman Power Armor How Daredevil Inspired Ben Affleck to Join Batman V Superman
It’s obvious that he too is not happy with how things turned out, but it looks as though it has worked out for the better of everyone involved. Affleck has moved on to play one of the most iconic comic book characters and has already won fans over. He should be a staple in the DCEU until the day he decides to call it quits, but that is years away from now. Not only will he be in Justice League next year, but his solo film is continuing to move along, and he could have many more appearances after.

Daredevil, meanwhile, eventually reverted back to Marvel as the failure of the film scared Fox away from wanting to attempt anything else. The character, now played by Charlie Cos, is a leading member of the Netflix corner of the MCU and will soon lead The Defenders. Sure, Affleck’s portrayal of Daredevil isn’t what fans wanted, but he makes it sound like without that failure he never would’ve considered playing Batman. So maybe there is some good that came out of the Daredevil movie after all.