Ben Affleck confirms he won't play Batman again after The Flash

When Ben Affleck was announced as the new Batman a few years ago, there was a lot of buzz around his take on the iconic character.

But after a few movies that received lukewarm responses and a harrowing experience filming The Justice League, the actor has said he won't be playing the character after his outing in The Flash.

In a recent interview, Ben said that he won't be playing the character any longer, indicating that The Flash is his final film as Bruce Wayne and his alter ego. This may well put to rest the rumours that DC and Warner Brothers were in talks to get him to do a solo Batman web series.

Speaking to Herald Sun, Ben said, "I won't be playing Batman much longer," adding that he had a "very, very hard experience" working on The Justice League with Joss Whedon, which led to him start drinking again. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year, Ben had said, "I started drinking too much around the time of Justice League, and it's a hard thing to confront and face and deal with." This was the reason that he had initially quit the DC universe, dropping out of his solo Batman film.

Ben did add that his sequence and scenes as Batman for The Flash were the most fun he has had playing the character and he feels the producers have finally understood how to portray him on screen. "I have never said this – this is hot off the presses – but maybe my favourite scenes in terms of Batman and the interpretation of Batman that I have done, were in the Flash movie," he revealed. "I hope they maintain the integrity of what we did because I thought it was great and really interesting – different, but not in a way that is incongruent with the character," he added.

This isn't the first time Ben has given up the cape and the cowl though. He had left the role after The Justice League five years ago but was persuaded to return for The Flash.

The Flash, which releases later this year, is Ezra Miller's first solo film as the DC speedster. The Andrés Muschietti film also stars Kiersey Clemons as well as Michael Keaton reprising his version of Batman from the 1989 film.