Ben Affleck's Batman has been cut from Aquaman 2

Sorry Batfleck fans. It’s been revealed that Ben Affleck’s Batman has been cut from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which is currently set to release on 20 December 2023.

The DCU, formerly DCEU, is very much in a transitional phase. James Gunn and Peter Safran’s reboot of the franchise will begin with Superman: Legacy. With David Corenswet set to star in the titular role, the film is now filling out its cast. It’ll start ‘Chapter One: Gods and Monsters’ - while the upcoming sequels to The Batman and Joker will exist in the ‘Elseworlds’ timeline. It’s unknown how long current DCU stars will stick around for. The Flash was set to be a major release for DC but the way it’s flopped is perhaps simply just evidence of why a reboot is needed. We still have the upcoming Aquaman sequel set to release before the DCU undergoes its overhaul, but Ben Affleck will no longer appear in the film.

Blue Beetle is set to release on 18 August.

By the sounds of it, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has been having a rough time. The film, which will mark the return of Jason Momoa in the titular role, has seemingly undergone three rounds of reshoots following lukewarm test screenings. The third round of these reshoots has just wrapped up and now, a new report by The Hollywood Reporter claims that one of the changes implemented into the film includes cutting Ben Affleck’s scenes. Affleck was set to return as Batman.

Originally, Michael Keaton was set to cameo. During a prior round of reshoots though, Keaton was replaced with Affleck’s Batman. It then got complicated when The Flash was released before Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom as that wasn’t the original plan. The Flash prominently stars Keaton’s Batman so then concerns arose over confusing viewers. Now, it seems as if the film simply won’t star any version of Batman at all.

Safran and Gunn reportedly removed the Batman cameo as they didn’t want to tease a future Batman appearance that they couldn’t commit to. After all, The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom are the remnants of the old DCEU. It makes sense that Safran and Gunn will tweak what they can to best lead into their rebooted universe. Sources claim the latest cut of the film is much more promising.