Ranting and Rambling: The Casting of Superman/Batman

Well, the latest round of casting has hit the internet, and people are responding. Big time. And here I am, throwing my hat into the ring. Again, I want to make explicitly clear that everyone is entitled to their opinions, and these are just mine. If you disagree, that’s fine, I won’t tell you that you’re wrong. But I will try to defend my point. And with that disclaimer, let’s begin!

Maybe this move's actually about Most Excellent Superbat? That would be a twist.

Henry Cavill as Superman

Despite Man of Steel getting mixed reviews, it seems that, relative to the rest of the sequel's casting, few people have a problem with Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel himself. The general consensus is that when the script gave him things to work with, he did a good job with what he had. And let's be fair, Superman's not the easiest character to portray.

I'll save my Man of Steel review for another day, but I'll finish up by saying that Man of Steel was an origin story. He wasn't supposed to be the Superman we all know and love at the beginning, but the end. Was he? It's open for debate. But I think we can all agree that Henry Cavill was a much better choice than...

Yeesh.

But even if some people have issues with Cavill as Superman, they are more likely to take issue with…

Ben Affleck as Batman

Okay, to be fair... that does sound like something from one of those fake movies in Tropic Thunder. However, Ben Affleck won 2 Oscars. That’s an impressive feat. To be fair, neither one was for his acting, but the man has talent.

With Good Will Hunting, we can see that Affleck understands drama. (Add to that the rumors that Affleck is helping write Superman/Batman....) And with Argo, that was a Best Picture award, so his acting must have at least contributed to that. Alongside those Oscars, he’s won 48 other awards and has been nominated 66 times.

But on the other hand, he’s got a couple flops under his belt, like the infamous Gigli. And the one thing that people always bring up, his comedic experience. Yeah, who ever heard of a comedic actor playing Batman?

Oh, wait.

If I had to pin the Anti-Batfleck hype on two things, it would probably be Gigli and Daredevil.

Let’s start with Gigli.

It’s simple. You get one major flop under your belt, it haunts you forever. That’s all there is to it. J-Lo’s career still hasn’t recovered from Gigli like Ben Affleck’s career has begun to do.

Gigli was utter crap, but it would have been utter crap without Affleck, too. Blame the script, not the actor. But speaking of bad movies, let’s discuss Daredevil.

Daredevil was a mess. There exist two versions of it. The main version (which sucks and cuts out important plot points) and the Director’s Cut (which isn’t too bad). You might be thinking “Why did they cast Affleck as Daredevil?” Funny story. According to Kevin Smith, when people ask him who he would cast in various roles, he always says, “Ben Affleck.” So when the director of Daredevil asked him who to cast as the lead…. Yep. At least, that’s what Smith claims. (Go watch “An Evening with Kevin Smith” for more on that. It’s hilariously insightful.) But let’s face it. Even if you hated Daredevil, there were much worse problems with it than Ben Affleck.

But to summarize (and also for you tl;dr types), Ben Affleck is not a bad dramatic actor. He’s just following up on the powerhouse Christopher Nolan trilogy, which would be a daunting task for any actor. Add to that a couple of flops and an unsuccessful escapade as Daredevil, and it’s easy to see why people cry foul on this casting. Still, people reacted the same way to Michael Keaton….

Now let’s move on to the next round of casting, least controversial first.

Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth

Alfred Pennyworth is an ex-RAF medic, later actor-turned-butler-turned-Batman’s-mentor. And they chose Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons. I like it. It seems to be a new take on Alfred, which I can appreciate.

Michael Gough was the typical posh gentleman, Michael Caine was more working-class, and it seems that this latest Alfred will draw on Alfred’s canonical experiences as a former soldier. (This would go along with changes to Alfred in the New 52, the Batman: Earth-One universe, and Beware the Batman.) 

I like it. Jeremy Irons is the man. Again, the problem is that it’s following up on Michael Caine’s powerhouse performance.

And finally…

Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor

Hoo boy. Again, the guy’s been nominated for an Oscar. But people keep bringing up valid points like, “He looks too young!” or “He has hair!” or “We want Bryan Cranston!” These are all valid points. But I seem to remember another controversial villain decision. Remember when this pretty boy was cast as a Batman villain?

Heck, remember when this musical theatre star was cast in X-Men?

Or when Johnny Storm ended up in The Avengers?

Now, I’m not saying that apparent miscasting automatically equals greatness. The moral of the story is simple: We don’t know. We don’t know anything about the script, we don’t know the direction that these actors will take their characters in. We simply do not know what’s going to happen, and we won’t know until 2016.

I, for one, remain excited and cautiously optimistic. As my examples have shown, there have been some casting decisions that looked horrible… and worked out for the best. But then again, there have been some casting decisions that looked horrible… and were horrible. (Ahnold as Mr. Freeze, anyone?)

It’s understandable to be a bit worried about this casting. As I’ve said a few times, the casting for the Dark Knight Trilogy was pretty much flawless. The solution that they’re trying out is to take things in a different direction. Now, “different” is a word feared by many fans of numerous franchises. But that’s the risk you take. If you keep things the same forever, it will eventually get stale. If you switch things up, you might end up with a disaster. But, again, we just don’t know what we’re going to get. This film could be another Avengers… or it could be another Batman and Robin. What do I recommend in this time of great worry and unrest?