Affleck hints at Batman villain
Ben Affleck has tantalized fans with new footage of a major DC Comics villain. The actor and director took to social media on Monday, sharing a short snippet of a villainous character walking menacingly up to the camera. Though he posted the cryptic video without comment or explanation, The Wrap reports that the figure portrayed in the test footage is Deathstroke, with the character likely to be a primary antagonist in either the upcoming Justice League movies or Affleck’s standalone superhero adventure titled The Batman, which the star is also directing and co-writing. Deathstroke, a.k.a. Slade Wilson, is a soldier-turned-assassin in the DC Universe created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, and first appeared in comic The New Teen Titans #2 in 1980. An experimental super-soldier project gave him superhuman strength and intelligence, in addition to regenerative abilities. Aside from Batman and the Justice League, he has also clashed with Green Arrow and the Teen Titans. There’s been plenty of speculation as to who Affleck’s Caped Crusader will face off against in the new movies, with the recently released Suicide Squad introducing chief antagonist Joker (Jared Leto) into the DC Extended Universe. Affleck, 44, first appeared as Batman in March’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and also makes a cameo in Suicide Squad. No official release date for the new Batman movie has been scheduled as yet, but Zack Snyder’s superhero team-up Justice League: Part One is currently filming in London, England, and is due out in 2017, with Part Two currently scheduled for 2019. The Academy Award-winner is also set to star in and direct an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s short story Witness for the Prosecution.