Recently, news broke that Ben Affleck was approached by Warner Bros to helm the solo ‘Flash’ movie, ‘Flashpoint,’ a story that was revealed to them by source Jeff Sneider (from The Tracking Board) by way of his Twitter account. The idea was that since Affleck was already looking to get out of the Batman gig, and since ‘Flashpoint’ was Warner Bros/ DC’s opportunity to do a soft-reboot of the DCEU and put a new face of Batman once the time-travel shenanigans of Barry Allen had died down, it would be a good chance for Affleck to step in and direct his final performance as Batman. Not to mention the fact that they have been having trouble finding a director for the solo ‘Flash’ movie since the original two directors had to drop out of the project for various reasons. And it went along with the news from last year about Affleck wanting to direct the solo ‘Batman’ film and stepping down once he had decided to start cutting ties to the DCEU and the character.
The only problem? Shortly after this story went live, it was debunked by Collider’s Steve Weintraub, who confirmed that Affleck was never actually offered the directing job for ‘Flashpoint.’ Ah well. What we do know is that the actual, current directors of ‘Flashpoint’ are ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ co-writers, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and the suspicion is that Warner Bros is hoping for a 2020 release for the film. (If I were them I would also be looking for that reboot film as fast as possible, especially after ‘Justice League.’)
It would have been cool to see Affleck go out of the DCEU directing his final film, especially if it was the kind of gig where he not only got to play Batman but also direct the new Batman and give the new actor some tips on the role. Kind of like hand off the character, but alas, it clearly was not meant to be. I still hope he is involved in ‘Flashpoint’ as an actor and at least gets that final role as Batman, but only time will tell.
