Is Ben Affleck working on his solo Batman movie or isn't he? Well, according to Joe Manganiello, who is set to play the villain Deathstroke in the movie, The Batman is happening and it will be shooting relatively soon. If the actor is to be believed, Ben Affleck's solo Batman movie will be filming early next year.

Joe Manganiello recently did an interview with ET Online following a recent health scare. During the interview, he was asked about how he was feeling after being hospitalized in April for undisclosed reasons. Not only did he say he is feeling better, but he also offered a bit of an unprompted update on The Batman. Here is what he had to say.

"Great, man, just getting ready to go shoot Batman in the spring."

There has been a whole lot of excitement, and maybe just as much confusion, about Ben Affleck's The Batman recently. While doing press for his latest movie The Accountant, the actor/director was pestered quite a bit about his upcoming Batman movie for the DC Extended Universe. At one point, he seemingly revealed that the title of the movie would be The Batman. However, shortly after that, he seemed to take a step back and make it seem as though The Batman wasn't totally, one-hundred percent happening at the moment. Here is what he had to say in an interview with E! News a couple of weeks ago.

"I mentioned the other day... it's been around for a long time, the movie... there is no Batman movie happening yet, we're still trying to figure it out, you know, get the script and budget and all that stuff. And someone said, 'what are you calling it?' and I had said, like, back when we were promoting another movie, I was like 'we don't have a name for it, we're just going with The Batman or Batman movie', and I said that, and everyone was like 'Affleck announces the title of his Batman movie.'"

Prior to Ben Affleck tempering everyone's excitement, fans were absolutely thrilled about the prospect of his Batman movie. A few weeks before his statement to E! News, the actor posted a video to his Twitter account showing the villain Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, which was eventually revealed to be Joe Manganiello, who was later confirmed to be the primary villain for The Batman. Despite Ben Affleck seemingly trying to make it seem like the movie isn't as far along as we may have thought, it appears that things are moving ahead.

There is no doubt that The Batman (if that does ultimately wind up being the title of the movie) is going to happen at some point, but it seems like the kind of thing that Warner Bros. will want to prioritize. With Joe Manganiello cast as Deathstroke, it is clear that preparations are being made and of he is to be believed, the movie could be shooting as early as March of 2017, which means we could possibly see The Batman in 2018. As of right now Warner Bros. has not announced a release date but if Joe Manganiello is right, we'll probably know more very soon.