Amidst all the Cyborgs and Shazams and Aquamans currently littering Warner Bros.’ slate of upcoming DC Comics films, the absence of a standalone Batman movie has been something of a surprising omission. Sure, the studio essentially ceded its Man Of Steel franchise to Ben Affleck’s take on the character, to the point where Batman has top billing in the upcoming sequel to Zack Snyder’s 2013 film. But the success of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight films suggests that there’s still a lucrative market for seeing the crusading orphan crimefighter all on his lonesome, sans dawning justices or Supermen or capital-Vs-with-periods-on-the-end. And now, just in time for Comic-Con, Deadline has confirmed that a standalone Batman movie is currently in the works, with Affleck set to direct and star in the movie, as well as co-write it with DC Comics’ Geoff Johns.
The new film will return Affleck to the director’s chair for only the second time since winning an Oscar for Argo in 2012. (He’s expected to helm an adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s Prohibition-era crime novel Live By Night in between trips beneath the cowl.) Affleck will share writing duties on the film with Johns, who—besides running DC’s massively successful revitalization of its Green Lantern titles—has written several episodes of The CW’s Arrow and The Flash. Batman: Super Long Subtitle Yet To Be Determined will be Johns’ first work on a major feature film.
Other DC Comics adaptations currently in the works include Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Suicide Squad, which stars Jared Leto as Batman’s nemesis The Joker. It’s unclear at this point how interconnected Warner is planning for its new franchises to be, although this all seems like a lot of unnecessary work if they don’t intend for Affleck to pop up from time to time to stare someone down, or see Leto swan into Gotham to kill some people and show off all of his fancy new tattoos.