Multiverses are big right now, from Rick and Morty to the MCU. So let’s imagine the following alternate dimension, in which Josh Brolin doesn’t play a comic book baddie. Instead he plays one of its biggest heroes. On a recent podcast, the actor reminisced about how long before he nabbed the role of an arguably hot Thanos (not to mention Cable in Deadpool 2), he was courted to play Batman.
Almost a decade ago, DC was on the hunt for a new Caped Crusader, who would play the character in their own still larval Cinematic Universe. The gig, of course, went to Ben Affleck, who played him in three films, with an appearance in The Flash en route. But Brolin was in the running.
“It would have been the older, the more raspy, for lack of a better word,” Brolin told the hosts of MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast about his version of Bruce Wayne. Of course, Affleck’s Batman was a little older than he usually is: middle-aged, with spots of gray in his hair, not only brooding but weary. So it seems like Brolin, who’s about five years older than Affleck, would have played an even older Wayne. He thought that was an “interesting” take, though director Zack Snyder, then overseeing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, wound up making him slightly younger.
“Honestly, that would have been a fun deal,” Brolin said. “And maybe I’ll do it when I’m 80.”
It all worked out in the end, sort of. The next year Brolin made his first appearance as Thanos in The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and went on to be the super-villain of the Avengers diptych Infinity War and Endgame. As for Affleck’s Batman run, well, that wound up a bit more chaotic than hoped for, though even that had a happy ending when Snyder released his own cut of the troubled Justice League. Then again, The Flash, which brings Affleck back to the role one last time, recently ran into its own troubles.
(Via Deadline)