Artist reveals Ben Affleck's armor design for canceled Batman movie

Before Robert Pattinson was cast as Bruce Wayne in The Batman, Ben Affleck was set to reprise his version of the DC Comics character for a solo film. Now, early concept art from the abandoned project reveals what Batman might have looked like in it.

Ben Affleck, who played Batman in 2016's Batman v Superman and then appeared in Justice League the following year, has signed on to write and direct his own version of the Batman film.

However, in 2017, he "realigned his priorities" and dropped out, leading to Planet of the Apes filmmaker Matt Reeves coming on board. Before Pattinson was cast in 2019, Reeves revamped the story and removed most of the DCEU connections.

Before Reeves took over, concept artist Keith Christensen drew some illustrations for Affleck's Batman that were reminiscent of the outfit worn by Batman in the video game Arkham Knight.

Not only does it have more grey than black, which is more in line with his style in the comics, but it also looks more aggressive.

"Trying to design an all-in-one, modular, functional suit made of bulletproof material. The suit was designed while Ben A was directing and starring in the film," Christensen explained while recently sharing his work to Instagram.

"I've always thought the cowl shouldn't be rubber, cloth or leather," he adds, highlighting the texture of Batman's pointy-eared mechanical headpiece: "What if his cowl was multi-layered? Non-Newtonian (polymer) gel pads sandwiched between Kevlar-like layers, covered in a composite shell? What if the ears were really sharp and dangerous?"

Christensen went on to share an illustration of Affleck’s gloves and gear belt.

“I thought it would be useful if he could retract the fins/blades on the gloves. The double teeth on the knuckles would increase traction on straight and counter punches,” he explained. “Having a lot of fun with this. Crazy, I haven’t done this in five years…”