Ben Affleck's Batman Replacement Shows What The DCEU Could've Been

While Ben Affleck’s DCEU Batman movies never really lived up to their potential, two of his other action thrillers that are currently trending on HBO Max worldwide prove he still has the chops to play a leading man. Ben Affleck’s worst movie shows that his career has been, to put it charitably, all over the place across the decades. Affleck’s early roles include appearances in cult classics like Dazed and Confused and Chasing Amy, culminating with a major supporting role in 1997’s Oscar-winning masterpiece Good Will Hunting.

While Affleck deservedly earned an Oscar for co-writing that drama, the following years saw him star in as many disastrous flops as he did hits. For every critically acclaimed effort like Shakespeare in Love, there was a disaster like Reindeer Games, and for every high-profile effort that proved a hit with critics, like Changing Lanes, there was a blockbuster that made a lot of money but was also critically panned, like Pearl Harbor.

While the 2010s saw Affleck redeem his reputation with a string of hits like The Town, Argo, and the smash-hit Gillian Flynn adaptation Gone Girl, this was also the era that featured one of Affleck’s most frustrating career missteps. After Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy ended Christian Bale’s tenure in the role with The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, Affleck took over the iconic part for 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Affleck reprised the role with an uncredited cameo in 2016’s Suicide Squad, before wrapping up his Batman era with 2017’s Justice League.

The Accountant Movies Prove Ben Affleck’s Action Star Potential

If that rundown sounds strange, that’s because it is. It was always unfortunate that Affleck never received the standalone solo Batman movie the DCEU was seemingly building towards, especially when the actor was a perfect fit for the iconic role. Between Affleck’s highly publicized personal struggles, the creative discord between Snyder and his disgraced Justice League replacement Joss Whedon, and a slew of behind-the-scenes factors, the timing was never right for Affleck’s Batman movie.

What makes this doubly unfortunate is the fact that a pair of action thrillers currently charting globally on HBO Max proves that Affleck was a perfect fit for the part. Although The Accountant and its sequel, The Accountant 2, are not available on the streaming service in the US, Affleck’s pair of action thrillers are still the most compelling testament to his unfulfilled potential as a Batman actor.

Directed by Warrior’s Gavin O’Connor, The Accountant introduces Affleck’s autistic accountant/hitman Christian Wolff, an amoral antihero who cooks the books of some of the world’s most nefarious elites. With a stellar supporting cast that includes John Bernthal, Anna Kendrick, and J.K. Simmons, The Accountant was a box office hit that earned $155 million on a budget of only $44 million despite dividing critics.

The DCEU’s Batman Never Used Ben Affleck Right

2025’s sequel, The Accountant 2, was less of a box office hit but a bigger success with critics, who called it an improvement on its predecessor and praised the sequel’s expansion of the franchise’s fictional world. The emergence of The Accountant as a gritty but darkly funny action thriller franchise centered on a morally dubious genius protagonist played by Affleck is a reminder that his reinvention of Batman could have been compelling.

Sadly, the DCEU never made the most of Affleck’s talents, as his Batman was lost in the overlong, overstuffed Justice League and was too miserable and cynical in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Unlike The Accountant movies, Affleck’s few DCEU outings never let him cut loose and have fun with the character, resulting in an unfortunate missed opportunity for one of cinema’s biggest series ever.