If Ben Affleck Drops Out of THE BATMAN, The Director Reportedly Wants Jake Gyllenhaal to Replace Him
Yesterday it was reported that if Ben Affleck ends up walking away from playing The Dark Knight in The Batman, director Matt Reeves already has someone in mind to replace him. Thanks to a recent episode of The John Campea Show, we now know who that actor might be.
Apparently, Reeves wants to cast Jake Gyllenhaal in the role of Batman. Gyllenhaal is one hell of a talented actor so I can see why Reeves might want to cast him. I do have to say, though, it's hard to imagine Gyllenhaal in the role. I know he'd nail it, and I think he'd kick ass as Batman! I'd just have to see it! I'm sure once I saw what Reeves is possibly envisioning, I'll be sold.
Gyllenhaal actually auditioned for the role of Batman back in 2005 for Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins. Then back in 2015, the actor stopped by The Howard Stern Show where Stern asked Gyllenhaal how he would have handled the bat-voice. This is how that conversation went down:
Stern: I wonder how you would have played Batman, though. Would you have been like, [deep voice] 'I’m Batman.' Do you change your voice for that or—
Gyllenhaal: No, I would have been like — if you’re hanging a guy by a string, right, and he’s like hanging upside down and you’re in a batsuit, he’d be like, [scared voice] ‘Who are you?!’ and I’d be like, [nonchalant] ‘I’m f—king Batman, you kidding me?’
Stern: Is that what you would have said? ‘I’m f—king Batman?’
Gyllenhaal: I wouldn’t say ‘f—k’ ‘cause it’s PG-13, but—
Stern: It would be cool if they bleeped you. You’d be like, ‘I’m f—king Batman, beep!’ What do you mean, you would have played it like, hey—
Gyllenhaal: 'I mean come on, man, look what I’m wearing!' It’s like, you know what I mean?
Stern: Yeah, but aren’t you trying to scare people as Batman? So wouldn’t you put on an ominous kind of a, [lowered voice] ‘I’m Batman’?
Gyllenhaal: Note to self. Don’t have Howard be your acting coach.
Stern: Is that right?
Gyllenhaal: I don’t know. I don’t know what I would do, and I will never have that opportunity, so I don’t know.
Stern: Maybe you ought to think it through so you’ll get the role the next time.
Gyllenhaal: I should have been on this show a lot earlier!
Well, he might just get that opportunity! When talking about how Gyllenhaal would be brought in to the DCEU, Campea says the story for The Batman could either take place outside of the DCEU shared universe like The Joker origin film in development. It was already rumored that this might be the case. The other option that the studio could go with, is to set the timeline for The Batman earlier on in Batman's crime-fighting career before the event of Batman v Superman. Gyllenhaal is almost 37, so he would obviously be playing a younger version of the character.
Personally, if Ben Affleck drops out, I think it should just be a standalone film separate from the shared universe. Doing this would be a lot easier than trying to make it fit into the shared universe.
What do you think about the possibility of seeing Jake Gyllenhaal as Batman?