The DCEU has had its fair share of ups and downs since the release of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel back in 2013. However, one of the most celebrated aspects of that particular universe has been Ben Affleck’s version of Batman. Affleck was such an amazing Dark Knight who tapped into the tragedy of the character in a uniquely somber way. That being said, like Michael Keaton before him, Affleck was not a popular choice for the role in the eyes of fans. Batfleck was in a long line of actors being looked at for the iconic role, and now we know of another famous actor who almost got the part. On MTV’s Happy Sad Confused Podcast with Josh Horowitz, Dune and Avengers: Infinity War actor Josh Brolin revealed he was up for the role of Snyder’s Batman.
“That was interesting to me,“ Brolin said and continued on saying, “That was his decision, that wasn’t my decision.” He then joked about liking the odds of being a part of something that could either completely fail or be a major success while referring to George Clooney’s short time in the spandex. Brolin would finish the Batman conversation by saying, “It would have been the older, the more raspy, for lack of a better word. Honestly, that would have been a fun deal. And maybe I’ll do it when I’m 80.”
It is always fun to think about what could have been if one famous actor played an iconic character over the actor we actually got. Like Brolin referred to in the interview, this was a time before the actor was Cable in Deadpool 2 and just before Brolin would debut as the MCU’s big bad Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy. There was a ton of fan art of Brolin as Batman at the time. However, if he did end up being the character for Batman v Superman, who knows how that would have affected that divisive sequel. Even though BvS did make money, it may have done even better financially causing us to be gearing up for Brolin’s second or third Batman film by now. If Brolin’s Batman happened he would probably never have been Cable, or maybe they would have had to recast Thanos in the Avengers movies because the actor was too busy being old man Wayne.
Brolin would have made a great Batman, but then we would have not gotten Batflek or even Robert Pattinson in the role. Also as Brolin joked about, we could see him end up being the iconic character when he is 80. Stranger things have happened with Keaton recently returning to the role after 30 years away. To think about what could have been, you can listen to Brolin's full Batman conversation down below.