Lots of DC news today, as expected from their Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con. First up, the Hollywood Reporter posted a story alleging Ben Affleck is being pushed out as Batman in DC’s extended universe. Addressing this at the panel, Affleck said, “Let me be clear, Batman is the greatest fucking part in the world. I am thrilled to do it.”

Which doesn’t mean anything, so it could very well be true.

Affleck was joined on stage by Ezra Miller (The Flash), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Ray Fisher (Cyborg) and Jason Momoa (Aquaman) who will all appear in the upcoming Justice League movie, which will be released on November 17. He’s also set to star in a not-yet-titled Batman film in 2018, directed by Matt Reeves. What happens with that remains to be seen.

A lot has changed, though, since Justice League’s appearance at Comic-Con last year: Director Zack Snyder took time off from the film to deal with a family tragedy, Joss Whedon came on board to steer reshoots, and most importantly, Wonder Woman became DC’s biggest smash. It’s no surprise, then, that this new trailer for Justice League leans heavily on Gal Gadot’s big-draw Themiscyran princess, plus it teases the return of Henry Cavill’s Superman and adds the villainous Steppenwolf.

A couple of interesting things to note; in the trailer Cyborg says, “There’s no protectors here. No Lanterns…” When you put that together with a picture Jason Momoa posted on Instagram just moments before the panel, which appears to show animated versions of the DCEU Justice League, but with one additional hero in the background who hasn’t made his debut in the cinematic universe yet – Green Lantern – one wonders if perhaps that character is indeed gently being eased into the public eye. Plus, there’s more than a hint of green at the very end of the footage. Finally, Joss Whedon is directing the Batgirl movie, which we knew already, but it was mentioned at the panel that Dick Grayson, AKA Robin, will appear.

We also learnt today that the forthcoming Flash movie will adapt the infamous Flashpoint storyline. Geoff John’s controversial 2011 story saw Barry Allen go back in time to save his mother from being killed by Reverse-Flash, AKA Professor Zoom. The change had huge ramifications for the future of the DC Universe, altering many things and eventually leading to a brand new timeline known as the New 52 in the comics.

So if, say, the movies wanted a way to phase out Ben Affleck’s version of Batman for some reason, maybe Flashpoint would be the storyline to do it in.

DC’s current film slate stands thus…
Wonder Woman 2
Shazaam!
Suicide Squad 2
The Flash: FlashPoint
Green Lantern Corps
Justice League Dark
The Batman
Batgirl