Why Josh Brolin Was Angry After Ben Affleck Was Cast as Batman in ‘Batman v Superman’
Ben Affleck was cast in the role of Batman in Batman v. Superman after Josh Brolin was strongly considered for the character. After seeing everyone’s response to Affleck as Batman, however, Brolin couldn’t help offer his own thoughts on the matter.
Josh Brolin couldn’t believe the fan response to Ben Affleck’s casting as Batman
Not many were happy with the news that Affleck was cast as Batman in Zack Snyder’s superhero feature. It appeared that a few fans held a grudge against Affleck after his part in Daredevil. Affleck even shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that the studio behind the movie anticipated the backlash. This led to them giving Affleck a warning about fan expectations.
“The people from the studio said, ‘We want to talk to you because people go through this process and it can be a little trying,'” Affleck said. “They said, ‘We want to show you some of the reactions that past cast members have got on the Internet.'”
But before Affleck, Brolin once confirmed to MTV News (via Comic Book Movie) that he was tapped to play the character.
“No. I mean, I started thinking about it personally…you know, what are they going to do with this older, wiser version? I liked the idea and I thought it was a really interesting idea,” Brolin said.
Although he didn’t hold any grudges after Affleck was cast in the film, he didn’t appreciate the vitriol fans had for him online.
“Ben’s got so much flak from this, I actually got angry for him, not at him. Everyone else is angry at him! I’m really curious to see what he does and what Zack does. I’ll see the movie. I’ll be a fan to see whatever version they’re going to do. But how do you bring up a movie that Ben did 10 or 15 years ago and…I mean, c’mon, the guy has grown and matured and just look at the work he’s doing now. I’m going to defend him literally until death,” Brolin said.
Josh Brolin ended up really happy he didn’t get the role in ‘Batman v Superman’
One of the reasons Brolin wanted to do Batman v Superman was due to the element of risk involved in the project. The film had a lot of unknown variables to it, as a much older Batman hadn’t been seen on the big screen. Brolin both welcomed and thrived with the challenge.
“Something that is set up to not work at all, or to work flyingly — I like those odds,” Brolin said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “I like playing with those odds. I’m like, ‘Am I the guy who’s gonna make it all fail?’”
He even gave insight into what his take on Batman would’ve been like, and how it would’ve differed from Affleck’s.
“It would have been the older, more raspy, for lack of a better word,” Brolin said. “Honestly, that would have been a fun deal, and maybe I’ll do it when I’m 80.”
But Brolin went on to add that he didn’t lose sleep over the role. In hindsight, he felt not being Batman in the 2016 blockbuster was a good thing.
“I’m really glad it didn’t happen,” Brolin said. “I haven’t thought twice about it.”
Josh Brolin has been in other superhero movies since losing his ‘Batman v Superman’ role
Brolin still found himself in the superhero genre even after missing out on Batman v Superman. The actor had a starring role as Cable in Deadpool 3. Apart from that, he was cast as Thanos in the first Guardians of the Galaxy, where he became a permanent part of the Marvel franchise.
The actor seemed to have an incredible experience with Marvel. But if there was one thing he couldn’t stand, it was how often Marvel changed scripts to maintain secrecy.
“[They give you] everything,” Brolin once told Comicbook.com about Marvel. “There was none of that, by the way, they did with Marvel also, the only thing is Marvel is, once in a while, I started to pick up on why do they keep changing it when we get to the set? Because they would release pages to make you think it was one thing, and then you would change it and do it, that was annoying.”
