Ben Affleck breaks silence on Batman

It's been a few weeks now since Ben Affleck was announced as being the new Batman, and every critic and a fair number of actors have had their say on the matter.

Finally, it's turned to Affleck himself to utter the 'B-word'.

Appearing on Jimmy Fallon's talk show last night, he broached the subject, jumping off from a conversation about his son, Samuel.

“Every kid should see their dad as a superhero, right?” he said.

[Affleck's Batman will be 'tired and kind of weary']

“It's so awesome, I'm so excited. They called me up and said 'do you want to do this?' and I thought, 'well, I'm not 25, are you sure about this?' They said come down, we want to show you what we're doing.

“And it was incredible. Zack Snyder is the director, and he has this incredible take on it. Obviously you can't do what Chris [Nolan] and Christian [Bale] did, those films are amazing, but he wants to do something different, but still in-keeping with that.

“I thought, 'this is brilliant way to do this, and I really know how to hook into it'. So I said 'OK, I want to do it'. And people from the studio were like 'we're thrilled, so excited'.

[Entire book asks if Ben Affleck is right for Batman]

“But they said 'listen, we want to talk to you because people go through this process, and it can be trying', and I said 'what do you mean?'. They said 'we want to show you some of the reactions that people who have been cast [in the past] have gotten on the internet'.

“And they're like 'KILL HIM!' You can't say that before the movie comes out! So I'm like 'I'm a big boy. If I can handle an Emmy snub, I can handle anything'. They said 'don't go on the internet for a couple of days', and I said 'I handle sh*t, I'm very tough'.

“I look at the first comment after it says 'Ben Affleck is going to be Batman' and it just says 'Nooooooooooo!'. I'm like 'OK, I'm done! We're going to be Luddites for a while kids!'.

[Why Ben Affleck is the wrong choice to play Batman]

“Part of it is that it's a hard thing to describe without giving away the story, but I really feel like I have a lot of opportunities now, which is really great, and this is something that's really exciting.”

So there we have it. Batfleck himself on Batfleck-gate. His remarks may endear him to some fans, but leave others cold, but that is very much par for the course.

It recently emerged that the new Batman is to be a 'tired and weary' take on the Dark Knight, so as a slightly older actor, perhaps he can bring something not yet seen in the previous incarnations.

Check out an exclusive behind-the-scenes feature on the epic Bane vs. Batman fight in 'The Dark Knight Rises' below. Ben, you have a lot to live up to....