The biggest difference between what Chris [Nolan] did in The Dark Knight Trilogy and what we're doing now is that Bruce Wayne, Batman, lived in what I called a closed universe, in that there were no superheroes in it. There's Batman, and he is a human being, and Bruce Wayne has taken himself and made himself - in many ways, even though he's definitely got some dysfunction - he's made himself into, in many ways, the best a human being can be intellectually, in terms of his ability to be a detective, physically, etcetera. But he's real. He's human, he's a human being. He has no superpowers.
When we embarked on Man of Steel... one of the things we were doing was we were creating a universe that had a superhero in it, because Superman is clearly a superhero, he has superpowers. So once we did that, it was with the knowledge that, if the movie was successful and we expanded the universe, we were going to expand it and populate it with other, like characters.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice producer Charles Roven talked in some length about the selection of Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman as part of The Hollywood Reporter's The Hollywood Masters series of interviews with influential filmmakers for students at Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television.
Roven revealed one of the most important reasons why Affleck was their first choose and the "first guy we went to" was his age and compared to Henry Cavill’s Superman.
"We knew that we wanted a very mature Batman, because we wanted to juxtapose him with this very young Superman," explained Roven. "So we wanted a guy who was tougher, rugged, who had signs of life, who had lived a hard life, and we wanted the guy to have chops, for sure."
"We also wanted a guy with big stature," Roven continued. "Ben is 6' 4". Henry [Cavill] is 6'1". We wanted Batman to tower over Superman. Not hugely, not like a basketball player. Superman needed to 'look up' to Batman. We wanted that dynamic, and Ben could do that, easily."
Responding to the question of whether Affleck hesitated on taking the role, Roven replied: "No, I wouldn't say he hesitated. I think that what he did do was that he made sure that he understood what Zack [Snyder] was looking for."
Roven also talked about how involved former Batman director Christopher Nolan and his producer wife Emma Thomas were in this latest iteration.
Roven said: "[Nolan] is an executive producer on the movie, as is Emma Thomas, his wife. And I would say that he's much more focused on the movie Interstellar, writing, directing. He co-wrote it with his brother. … They were off doing that movie."
Nolan wasn't entirely removed from the Batman v. Superman development, though, Roven said, explaining that the Inception director was "certainly involved in different stages. I would say he has an advisory capacity" and that he also was involved in the casting of Affleck as Batman.
Roven explained that Affleck wanted to know how Snyder planned to differentiate between Batman and Bruce Wayne, and apparently Dawn of Justice will mark a "completely different" iteration of that dynamic.
"He's much more of a social animal in the Bruce Wayne incarnation, but he's also an extremely rough guy in the Batman incarnation — very, very, very rough," Roven explained.
In his final comments, Roven mentions Wonder Woman, and confirms her origin as the daughter of Zeus.
Wonder Woman’s in it. We know that. She has powers, she’s a goddess. She’s a demigod. Her father was Zeus.
and let's not forget the smirk he gave Superman in the teaser.
