In this world where directors constantly change and everybody still has no idea if Cad Bane will come back from the dead, it's easy to fall into a pattern of reminiscing about what might have been. Sure, comic book movies like The Batman seem like a constant nowadays. But with every big-budget release, there's always some little change that happened along the way, prompting fans to wonder about cut content or completely reworked storylines.
A rather infamous instance of this phenomenon is Matt Reeves' current box office hit, The Batman. Starring Robert Pattinson in the title role with Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Paul Dano as The Riddler, it shook up the formula people have come to expect from the Caped Crusader. Audiences have largely come to settle on the opinion that the film they got was well worth the price of admission. But what about the original plans for the movie?
Some may remember that Ben Affleck himself was originally slated to both star in and direct his own Batman movie before Reeves took over the project. After The Batman concept artist Keith Christensen recently shared an Instagram post showing off what Affleck might have looked like in Pattinson's Batman suit, it looks like he's got more hypotheticals to reveal to the world. This time, he released a photo showing off a potential outfit design for the villain Deathstroke, who was apparently set to appear in Affleck's version of the film. Sleek and deadly, the design fits the character to a T.
Christensen's post notably mentions Joe Manganiello, who played Deathstroke in the theatrical version of Justice League as well as Zack Snyder's cut of the film. Manganiello recently stirred up Deathstroke interest once again with a mysterious new profile picture on Instagram, which understandably got some fans' hopes up after being faced with the notion that the character probably won't appear again anytime soon. Truly, the life of a DC movie fan is one heck of a roller coaster.
While Christensen's design doesn't exactly give off any explicit references to Manganiello, it's pretty clear that he would have been the one playing the character if that version of the movie had seen the light of day (metaphorically, of course. This is Batman, after all). So unlike Reeves' admittedly inspired spin on the classic formula, it's pretty clear that an Affleck production would have remained a part of the ongoing DC Extended Universe canon. Though, perhaps that also means it would have been reset along with the rest of the timeline as is speculated to occur in the upcoming The Flash movie.
Either way, given the pretty overwhelmingly positive reactions The Batman is still enjoying at the box office, it seems things still turned out alright in the end. The world may never fully know what Affleck had in store, but what's life without a little mystery? Yes, that's sort of a cop-out, but so is every explanation for why every hero and villain just so happens to be remarkably skilled at costume design.
The Batman is currently playing in theaters.
Source: Keith Christensen/Instagram