Following an unconfirmed, later debunked, story that Armie Hammer is being considered for the younger Batman we’ve been hearing about, Hammer himself surfaced to address any lingering hope he wants a part in the DC franchise again. Hammer had originally been cast as Batman in George Miller’s Justice League: Mortal that never made it to the big screen.
The actor chatted with Yahoo! Movies, promoting his new movie On the Basis of Sex, and they asked him about the persisting rumors. Here is what he had to say.
“No one who can actually give me the job has asked me if I’m interested. So I don’t know. I don’t even know if they are done. I think they are still working on a script. I don’t think they’re close to production or anything like that. But I can conclusively tell you that no one has checked my availability, which is a bummer.”
His words are pretty clear and emphatic and there is nothing substantial coming out to contradict the interview, which you can see below.
Hammer’s verbiage — “bummer” — might surprise some. It expresses that he might actually be interested in taking on the role of Batman. It definitely doesn’t look like he’s ruling the opportunity out if someone does contact him.
Hammer discussed what his Batman in Justice League: Mortal would have been like with Maltin on Movies:
“I wanted this Batman character to be so dark. I was like look, no one – and this was George’s idea as well, this was really in the script – but no one ever really shows how truly psychotic this man has to be. Like this is a guy who chooses to put on a costume, in all black, and sneak around at night and beat the s— out of people.
Bruce Wayne was the mask that you never really see. I’m probably not supposed to be talking about this, but they took the job away so whatever! So even in times when he would be sitting around, like let’s say he had his batsuit off and all that, he would be sitting down with the thing, looking at the thing with the cowl on, because that’s where he felt the most comfortable in his own weird, twisted way.
He was a neurotic, like borderline schizophrenic dude who didn’t trust a single person, including anyone in the Justice League, and had all the dirt on every single one of them, and was ready to take all of them down at the snap of a finger.”
The rumors surrounding Hammer becoming Batman were interesting given he shared sentiments about tributes to the late Stan Lee that earned a response from Jeffrey Dean Morgan that could’ve made him into tainted goods in the eyes of fans.
Things do change, and Boylesports gave him the best odds of replacing Ben Affleck, overall. To be fair, so many names were on that list that have a slim chance, to begin with, like Henry Cavill.
Armie Hammer might be no more than another name in a long line of fantasy casting. For weeks, the name Jack O’Connell was thrown around so much, everybody assumed he was a lock. O’Connell still could land the part, if the studio or Matt Reeves reaches out, but concerned parties are tight-lipped in regards to who they are talking to if anybody.
The Batman is slated for a June 25, 2021, release. Given all the delays, that could be subject to change. What we can say with some certainty is the film will be a detective story featuring a potential panoply of Gotham Rogues.