For director Matt Reeves' upcoming The Batman, The Lighthouse's Robert Pattinson will be taking on the mantle. But, as many will already know, that was not always the plan as Ben Affleck was supposed to continue wearing the cape and cowl and continue the work he had done as the character in both Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. Many fans were disappointed when Affleck stepped away from the role, but over the last few days he has been giving his reasons, and now he has given another one.

"You know big blockbusters are cool and they're great. But they're not that fun to make, just on a very practical level, because they're very long, they're very compartmentalized, you're doing one tiny piece at a time. Often times, you're just feeling like you're moving your foot a quarter of an inch.

They're hard to continue to motivate yourself, and find your passion. I stepped away from The Batman movie, because I felt like it should be made by someone whose lifelong passion it was, you know what I mean? And if that wasn't me, then I wasn't the right guy."

Ben Affleck is partly blaming blockbuster filmmaking for pushing him away from The Batman, stating that they just are not much fun to make, with actors often feeling like they aren't getting anywhere. Though Affleck has starred in some big, tentpole movies over the years, his career more recently has mostly involved character-driven projects rather than explosive blockbusters so it does make sense that he, perhaps, was not enjoying starring in the DC movies very much.

Ultimately, it sounds like this, combined with the other, very personal reasons that Affleck has given, killed off his passion for The Batman, and so he did the right thing and stepped away to make room for someone more eager to do it. This ties in with Ben Affleck's previous comments about how his struggle with alcoholism also led to him leaving the role.

"I drank relatively normally for a long time. What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart. This was 2015, 2016. My drinking, of course, created more marital problems."

The Justice League movie had a famously problematic production which no doubt fueled both his problems at home and his slight disdain for blockbuster movie-making. Having made the role his own during his several appearances as the character in the DCEU, it is a shame that these issues behind the scenes sapped his desire to play the character, as we have no doubt that he would have made an excellent solo Batman movie.

The Batman movie we are getting, which is also shaping up very nicely, opens in theaters on June 25, 2021. This comes to us from Cinemablend.