Ben Affleck to play Batman? It's the obvious choice

So, Ben Affleck, the BAFTA-winning actor and Oscar-winning director and screenwriter, has been cast as Batman in Warner Bros' forthcoming Batman and Superman blockbuster. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the announcement is the amount of apparently genuine surprise it has generated: Warner Bros’ decision makes perfect sense, both commercially and creatively.

Ever since his move into directing with 2007’s Gone Baby Gone, Affleck’s acting career has also been gaining momentum, to the point where he is now one of the more reliable leading men in Hollywood. In the last four years, he has brought his own brand of broad-chinned, morally clouded gravitas to everything from thrillers such as Argo and The Town, which he also directed, to Terrence Malick’s meditative romance To The Wonder.

And after bringing a clutch of awards to Warner Bros with Argo last year, his stock at the studio could hardly be higher. A successful blockbuster like this – or possibly a string of them, if the studio’s plans for an Avengers-style superhero franchise of their own comes together – could buy him all the creative freedom he wants in non-Batman pictures for the rest of his life.

Affleck hasn’t taken the lead role in a blockbuster since Daredevil, in 2003, which was hardly, as superhero films go, a roaring triumph. But the failure of Daredevil is down to many more factors than Affleck’s performance in it – and besides, ten years on he is a changed actor. He is handsome, popular and talented, and his star is once again in the ascendant. The more you think about it, in fact, the more obvious it seems: who on earth would Warner Bros cast in their 2015 summer extravaganza if not their golden boy?

Nevertheless, the instant reaction on social media to Affleck’s casting has been, at best, mixed. I’m pleased to say the level-headed bunch in my own Twitter feed met the news with cautious optimism, but elsewhere, the sandwich boards were already being painted. A Change.org petition was drafted in what seemed like minutes and had, by 9.30am today, attracted over 3,000 signatures.