We don’t really know anything about Matt Reeves The Batman film. We don’t even know if it’s called The Batman – that was just a potential title Ben Affleck casually dropped, and the media ran with it. That’ll teach him to drop tidbits about comic-book movies.
And, we don’t know if Affleck is returning to the role. I’m going to assume not, seeing as he seems to regret his involvement in this franchise, judging purely from sad facial expressions. But Jon Hamm randomly piped up last week, saying that there’s actually a huge nerd hiding inside that slab of raw masculinity, and that he would really love to play Batman.
Hamm has always been my personal dream casting choice for Bruce Wayne, not just because he has the chin for it (though that’s important), but because he already played such a similar character. And while it’s cool to do a Michael Keaton and go in a wildly different direction, sometimes you just want a solid, dependable actor who you know is just going to nail the traditional interpretation of the character.
Weird, wacky casting choices can lead to Heath Ledger’s captivating Joker, or Jesse Eisenberg’s incredibly embarrassing Lex Luthor. Either way, it’s surprising. Refreshing. But some actors can successfully continue playing the exact same character, with the exact same mannerisms, sometimes for their entire career – just look at Dwayne Johnson.
Some actors just don’t change, and that’s fine. That’s what I want Jon Hamm to do. Because when he was starring in Mad Men, one of the greatest, if not the greatest television series of all time, Hamm proved he could make his face synonymous with Bruce Wayne, in the same way Mark Hamill made his voice the definitive Joker (to this day, I am unable to read a Joker comic without hearing Hamill).
Don Draper is an obsessive workaholic, irritable and unhappy unless he’s focused on the task at hand. Or heavily intoxicated. But let’s forget about that, because Batman is the kind of guy who drinks water at Christmas parties.
Don Draper also carries the childhood trauma of having a dead parent, a childhood that turned into adulthood too quickly, and, to top it off, he even has a secret identity. Draper carries this weighty secret everywhere he goes, from board meetings to the bedroom. He’s always pretending to be someone else, unless he’s going through the creative process. In brainstorming sessions, he’s finally free to show his true colors.
Just like how Bruce Wayne spends his life pretending to be rich and irresponsible, like Elon Musk, who trolls journalists on Twitter and randomly accuses people of pedophilia. But secretly, Wayne is uber-efficient and incredibly ambitious, also like Elon Musk, who lands rocket ships in the middle of the ocean and single-handedly made electric cars cool.
Bruce Wayne is forever living a double life, and both are pretty damn demanding. Jon Hamm’s got that chronic fatigue and short temper down to a T; all he needs to do is lift a few weights and he’s perfect for the part.
That being said, rumors surrounding Reeves’ film indicate that the story will revolve around a younger Batman. And Warner Bros. already tried the exhausted middle-aged thing with Affleck, and he nailed it, possibly because he hated every single second of being Batman, but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue in that direction.
Young Batman isn’t particularly interesting; even Christian Bale struggled to make the character stand out. Nobody really talks about Bale’s performance, not because it wasn’t good, but because the character is always overshadowed by his eccentric villains.
Cynical Batman is the way to go; he’s funnier, and more relatable, as far as relating to Batman goes. Kind of hard to identify with that level of dedication, and if you do, you’re probably the kind of guy who doesn’t have time to watch movies.
On a related note, Josh Gad, best known as Olaf the incredibly irritating snowman from Frozen, is desperate to play the Penguin, and seems to be very keen to face Hamm’s Batman. Seeing the Penguin back in action, played by a comedian (comedians make the best villains), would be pretty exciting.
At the very least, it would wipe away the memory of seeing Batman almost murder the extraterrestrial protector of Earth, only to have a dramatic change of heart after learning his mom’s name.
I can’t see Jon Hamm doing that.
