‘Animals’ Star Ben Affleck Torches Warner Bros. Over ‘Justice League’ Reshoots and Names the Career Low He Still Hasn’t Shaken
Few superhero team-ups arrived with as much baggage as ‘Justice League’. It was meant to be the big crossover payoff for the DC Extended Universe, yet its story is as much about what happened behind the scenes as on screen. Nearly a decade later, the people who lived through the ‘Justice League’ reshoots are still unpacking it.
Zack Snyder had directed the early DCEU, including ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’, which introduced Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne. He left ‘Justice League’ after disputes with leadership and the death of his 20-year-old daughter, Autumn. Joss Whedon then took over to finish the film through a series of reshoots.
The theatrical cut was a critical and commercial failure, earning roughly $661 million. Now Affleck has given what may be his bluntest assessment of that period yet. Speaking on Happy Sad Confused while promoting his Netflix thriller ‘Animals’, he told host Josh Horowitz the ‘Justice League’ experience was the lowest point of his career.
Affleck did not hold back on how Snyder was removed. He said the loss of Snyder’s daughter eclipses everything, and that using it as an excuse to swap directors was among the worst things he had ever seen. He called the whole situation distasteful and said the reshoots had a bad atmosphere.
“That was shtty, him being taken off that movie and the reshoots that we did… Somebody’s death by suicide eclipses everything. The way in which that was, I thought, used as an excuse [to replace Zack with Joss Whedon] was one of the shttiest things I’ve ever seen. It was so gross. The whole environment and vibe [on set during the reshoots], much of which I was not privy to but heard secondhand from the actors, it was just, ‘Wow, this is about as gross as it gets.'”
“I saw how not to make a movie like that, which is where the studio is at odds with the filmmaker. You are really making a mistake. I was really glad and gratified that Zack got to release [his version via the SnyderCut]. That was f*cking great. I was really happy for him.”
Much of what he knew about that atmosphere was secondhand, he explained, passed along by other actors, including Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot. His reaction at the time was that it was “about as gross as it gets.” Whedon was later accused by Gadot of threatening her on set, claims he denied.
Affleck framed the experience as a case study in what goes wrong when a studio and a filmmaker are at odds. In his view, that conflict is what doomed the film. He said he came away understanding exactly how not to make a movie like it.
He also had warm words for Snyder’s eventual vindication. Snyder’s vision reached audiences as a 4-hour extended cut, twice the length of the theatrical release, which premiered on HBO Max after a persistent fan campaign. Affleck said he was glad and gratified that Snyder got his version out, praising how shrewdly he pulled it off.
The fallout extended well beyond one film. Affleck said he loved playing an older, broken Batman, a version drawn from Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’, and that this was what he and Snyder aimed for in ‘Batman v Superman’. But the ‘Justice League’ ordeal soured him on the character.
He had planned to direct a solo Batman movie that reportedly would have featured Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke and a trip to Arkham Asylum. That project fell apart and eventually gave way to Matt Reeves’ Robert Pattinson-led ‘The Batman’. Affleck previously told Entertainment Weekly that making ‘Justice League’ was a nadir experience that made him not want to keep playing the role.
Elsewhere in the same conversation, Affleck confirmed that Lucasfilm once approached him about directing ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’. That detail is a reminder of how many different paths his career could have taken. For now, though, it is his candor about ‘Justice League’ that has fans buzzing.
The comments land at a moment when the DCEU’s legacy is still debated, with Snyder’s supporters long arguing that the theatrical cut never reflected his intent. Affleck’s account gives that camp a high-profile validation, and it adds a human cost to a story that has usually been told in box office terms.
Share your thoughts in the comments on whether Affleck’s account changes how you see ‘Justice League’ and the studio’s handling of Zack Snyder’s exit.
Who do you think was most responsible for the failure of the theatrical cut of Justice League?
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