Ben Affleck confirmed as Batman solo movie director

Following months of discussion, Ben Affleck’s Batman movie is officially happening.

The project was announced at the Warner Bros. Comic-Con panel on Saturday, where Affleck was was in attendance. The actor will direct and star in the film as the Caped Crusader.

“It’s really inspiring. It’s like taking on a great play. It’s been reinvented so many times, it’s terrifying but it’s exciting,” Affleck said. No release date was confirmed, but the Batman logo was slotted between standalone films for The Flash (2018) and Cyborg (2020).

After the panel, Affleck tweeted a logo for the Batman standalone film.

Talk of a Batman solo movie has been happening for a while. Warner Bros. teased the project in the barest of terms at CinemaCon earlier this year (Affleck was mentioned as one of the DC Comics movie universe filmmakers), but it was never confirmed in an official capacity.

“I have a script, we’re still working on it, and I’m not happy enough with it yet to actually go out there and make a Batman movie, for which I have the highest of standards, I would say,” Affleck said to journalists during a Justice League set visit last month. “That’s something that would have to pass a very high bar for me. It’s not just like, ‘Yeah, that might be fun, let’s go try this out.’”

Affleck starred in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as Batman, and will play the character again in Justice League.