I’ll never forget it. While watching TV recently, a picture of Ben Affleck popped up on my Facebook news feed. Attached to it was an article declaring that the actor had been cast in the next “Man of Steel” film, to play the role of a little known character called Batman. Emotions flooded through my very soul; fury, confusion, fear, sorrow; it was nothing short of an emotional cataclysm.

My main worry came not from the choice of Affleck, but the fact that he was being saddled with the ultimate kryptonite for the Superman franchise; director Zack Snyder. After creating the cinematic abomination “Sucker Punch”, he then turned his attention to creating the mediocre “Man of Steel”, which had great potential for revitalizing the character of Superman for a modern age, but left most of it on the floor in favor of muddled action sequences and an overdose of flashback sequences.  With Snyder still at the helm of this franchise, the very chance of us getting a good Superman movie is similar to chances of Warner Bros. finally making a Wonder Woman movie (Read: not good at all).

Rumors have spread that Ben Affleck is helping out with the script as well, which would do wonders for the movie even if he helps in only small doses. Also, it must be said that early judgement of his being miscast feel like deja vu for me. After all, didn’t we go through all the fanboy grumbling over Heath Ledger as The Joker and Daniel Craig as James Bond? Perhaps my fellow nerds should wait at least for a trailer before pronouncing Affleck’s portrayal of The Caped Crusader atrocious.

Still, I remain more concerned for the future of DC films, even if some good actors like Ben Affleck will be participating. They seem to lack the unique spark that makes the Marvel Cinematic Universe so compelling, not to mention the great filmmakers (like Shane Black and Joss Whedon) that give those films a sense of brilliance, something “Man of Steel” lacked (among many, many other things). Kudos to Ben Affleck for at least taking an interesting turn in his career, but with filmmakers like Zack Snyder still making most of the decisions, I seriously doubt many future DC films will be any good.

Note: No, Matt Damon isn’t playing Robin.