Last week Armie Hammer opened up about nearly playing Batman in George Miller’s cancelled Justice League film back in 2008, admitting he is glad that he didn’t portray the superhero when he was so young.
“As a 31-year-old who’s been through a lot since I was 19, I wouldn’t want to watch a 19-year-old Batman. I’d be like, ‘Who’s this spoiled rich kid who wants to play dress-up?’”
When I sat down to talk with Hammer on Friday about his latest film “Call Me By Your Name” I asked the actor whether or not he now felt ready to play the Caped Crusader, to which he declared, “As a performer I would like to think that I am ready for a lot more jobs than I was at 19, but then again you are only ready for the jobs that people are actually offering or asking to do. And no one is offering or asking.”
The last part of that sentence is particularly prescient, because there have been increasing rumors over the last few weeks that Ben Affleck’s tenure as Batman will come to an end after “Justice League.” Affleck has only exacerbated this speculation himself with his non-committal answers regarding his future, while the latest chatter is that Jake Gyllenhaal will replace him in the DCEU.
If Affleck does depart the franchise then Hammer’s name is likely to be brought up, too, and his above comments suggest that the process of not getting the role nearly a decade ago means that he is now in a much better place to do it justice.
But considering that Hammer is just 31-years-old, and that the 45-year-old Affleck has portrayed Batman as an older and more physically vulnerable superhero, there’s every chance the DCEU will actually be looking for someone with more experience.
Of course until Affleck officially departs this is all irrelevant. In the meantime audiences should just go and watch “Call Me By Your Name,” which possesses one of Armie Hammer’s finest performances to date, and has already been called on the best films of 2017.
