Ben Affleck is 'not interested' in directing a DC movie under James Gunn's new ... trends now

Actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck shuts the door on returning to the DC Universe as a director under new DC Studios head James Gunn in a candid chat with the Hollywood Reporter this week.

The actor played Batman in 2016's Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, 2017's Justice League and 2021's Zack Snyder's Justice League, and he was also set to star in and direct a Batman movie himself.

However, the experience on Justice League was 'the worst experience' the 50-year-old filmmaker went through and made him have no interest in returning to the superhero world as a filmmaker.

He will make one last appearance as The Caped Crusader this summer when he appears in The Flash, arriving in theaters June 16, where he says he, 'finally figured out' how to play that character.

Still, while Affleck - who also opened up about what Jennifer Lopez really said to him during the Grammys and much more - says he thinks Gunn is a 'nice guy,' he still would never return to the DC Universe as a filmmaker.

'I would not direct something for the (James) Gunn DC. Absolutely not,' Affleck succinctly stated. 

'I have nothing against James Gunn. Nice guy, sure he’s going to do a great job. I just wouldn’t want to go in and direct in the way they’re doing that. I’m not interested in that,' Affleck clarified.

He added that superhero stories like Justice League have, 'became somewhat repetitive to me and less interesting,' though he admits he did finally 'figure out how to play' Batman in his appearance in The Flash.

'I nailed it in The Flash. For the five minutes I’m there, it’s really great. A lot of it’s just tone,' Affleck explained.

'You’ve got to figure out, what’s your version of the person? Who is the guy that fits what you can do? I tried to fit myself into a Batman. And by the way, I like a lot of the stuff we did, especially the first one, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

When asked 'what went wrong' on 2017's Justice League - which united some of the biggest superheroes in the DC comics library but was plagued with tragedy and disaster - Affleck said, 'You could teach a seminar on all the reasons why this is how not to do it.'

'Ranging from production to bad decisions to horrible personal tragedy, and just ending with the most monstrous taste in my mouth,' Affleck said. 

He added, 'The genius, and the silver lining, is that Zack Snyder eventually went to AT&T and was like, "Look, I can get you four hours of content." And it’s principally just all the slow motion that he shot in black-and-white.'