“Aquaman 2” now without Batman – although Michael Keaton and (!) Ben Affleck were in front of the camera

In an extensive article, the the turmoil behind the scenes of Aquaman 2: Lost Kingdom. The reason is the third round of reshoots, which is said to have taken place in June 2023 with protagonists Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson, among others. According to the trade magazine, the fact that three reshoots are planned for a film is an “unprecedented number”.

But the many reshoots are only a small part of the chaos that probably surrounds the project. During the production of “Aquaman 2” there were three different leaders in power at Warner subsidiary DC – and they all brought their own ideas for the film and had it adapted to their ideas. Combined with numerous start date shifts, this is the reason for the many changes that are best reflected in Batman’s appearance.

That’s why Batman is now missing from “Aquaman 2”

Walter Hamada, who was in charge of DC at the beginning of the “Aquaman 2” production, had the idea of ​​making Michael Keaton the new Batman of the universe – seeing him as a kind of mentor role for other characters. He should also be popping up all over the place, kind of like Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury at the start of the MCU. So Keaton was built into “The Flash”, a “Batgirl” movie was launched with him and he was also part of “Aquaman 2”.

But after Hamada’s replacement, Warner Film executive duo Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who are now also responsible for DC on an interim basis, had other plans. Keaton’s appearance no longer served any purpose, as after numerous launch date delays, “Aquaman 2” would now be released before “The Flash”, which was plagued with even bigger problems at the time. After all, it wasn’t until the multiverse story in The Flash that he became part of the DC Universe at all. Ben Affleck was brought back with much publicity and integrated into post-shoots as the new Batman. After all, the new plan for The Flash at this point was to get Affleck back as Batman.

But now “Aquaman 2” begins, as is known, after the already appeared “The Flash”, which now has a completely different Batman at the end. In terms of content, a performance by Affleck no longer makes much sense. Keaton’s originally planned material fits even less. With James Gunn and Peter Safran, a new duo now also runs the fortune at DC. And they usually reboot the DCU. The old DCEU is really just being liquidated. And that’s what you wanted according to that give the audience no more hope that they will experience a different universe here. There is now a new cut version where Batman no longer plays at all.

Will “Aquaman 2” be the next DC mega-flop after “The Flash”?

On December 21, 2023, “Aquaman 2: Lost Kingdomcome to the cinemas and there are concerns that this could be the next big DC box office disaster. “The Flash” just turned out to be a rather gigantic failure, despite the previous hype. Some even call it the biggest flop of a superhero movie of all time.

“Aquaman 2” was now also very expensive. The original budget would have been $205 million. There was also a shoot during the Corona pandemic, which caused many budgets to be shot up. Three reshoots that were not planned in this way and drove up costs to that extent. And on the other hand, there is the uncertainty whether the public will really go to the cinema for a film that belongs to a universe that actually no longer exists, which is immediately replaced by a new one.

The insider article of the . The recent shooting went so well that it only took director James Wan four days out of the five originally planned. James Gunn was also very actively involved in the new cut and the fact that Warner is still investing money in the project shows that you believe in it one way or another. And the predecessor “Aquaman” was also plagued with problems, was massively edited after filming and ended up grossing more than $1.1 billion. It is still the most successful DC movie ever at the box office. And currently “Aquaman 2” is even the highly anticipated upcoming movie of yours…