Although Ben Affleck looked pretty morose during the junkets for Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice, not to mention in later interviews about his upcoming role in The Batman, the actor and Oscar-winning director isn’t soured on the DCEU. He sounds almost optimistic about Justice League, which is due out November 17 and features his third appearance as the Caped Crusader (don’t forget, he was in Suicide Squad). But despite putting his best, least-sorrowful face forward, Affleck isn’t ignoring the criticism surrounding the 2016 film. He’s heard and read the reviews that called the movie dreary, deflating, and literally just too damn dark.
In a new interview with Empire, Affleck says he“can understand people saying [Batman V. Superman] was too dark, or this was outside the tone of what I’m used to seeing with a Batman story, and I think that’s a fair criticism.” But Zack Snyder, who directed BVS and Justice League, is gradually lightening up his part of the DCEU, Affleck claims. Calling it part of a “natural progression,” Affleck says that with Justice League, Snyder “wanted to make a movie that was more fun, that was a little bit light, that wasn’t so encumbered with heavy melodrama.”
Affleck went on to make Live By Night in between tentpole films, though, so his tolerance for bleakness might be a bit higher than the average moviegoer. But Gal Gadot, who led the much brighter Wonder Woman this summer, agrees that Justice League “is not a dark or heavy movie. It doesn’t have the weight Batman V Superman had.”