Richard Armitage Was Up for Batman Role When Ben Affleck Was Cast
21 hours ago
by Sam Stone in Movie News Comment


There could have been a very different Bruce Wayne when Batman made his DC Extended Universe debut.

Richard Armitage, best known for portraying Thorin Oakenshield in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, revealed he was nearly cast as Batman. He auditioned for the role ahead of 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but Ben Affleck was ultimately cast opposite Henry Cavill.

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“There was a little flurry once upon a time just after I’d come out of The Hobbit where I auditioned for Batman,” Armitage told Digital Spy. “There were about five or six actors that were in line for that character, so I went through quite a process with that.”

With reports that filmmaker Matt Reeves may replace Affleck with a younger actor for his Batman solo film, the DCEU’s portrayal of the Dark Knight may have gone in a very different direction with Armitage in the cape and cowl. Despite not landing the role, Armitage remains a firm fan of the DC superhero.

“The sort of darker side of a man, and the desire to right some wrongs,” Armitage said, addressing what intrigues him about the character. “I think it’s really interesting, that character Bruce Wayne.”

In the meantime, fans can catch Armitage portraying a different superhero in different medium: Logan in Marvel’s first original scripted podcast, Wolverine: The Long Night.

“It was pretty amazing,” Armitage said about his role in the 10-episode series. “I started to look at some of the movies, and then I decided to go really to the comic book and to the scripts that they’d written.”