Ben Affleck is confirmed to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne in "The Batman," the superhero's standalone movie in the DC Expanded Universe. Joe Manganiello has been cast to play main villain Deathstroke while another big star is said to make his debut in the DCEU.

There are rumors that Armie Hammer is joining the DCEU and will be making his debut in Affleck's "The Batman." The speculations stem from the fact that DC Films president Geoff John and Manganiello has followed Hammer on Twitter, Movie Web reported. Manganiello also posted a series of tweets stating a major announcement would be made, which only ended up being an announcement about the actor playing his old guitar. However, Manganiello followed up on the Hammer rumors by posting a photo of himself with "The Social Network" star. In the caption, he said that they were both "burning the midnight oil."

If it does turn out to be true that Hammer is playing a role in "The Batman," the company has not divulged any details as to his potential character. Interestingly, Hammer was previously set out to play Batman in the defunct 2008 production of "Justice League." The movie was supposed to be directed by George Miller. When asked if he's ever interested in playing Batman again after "Man of Steel" came out.

"I think if Henry and I did that film and then a superhero film straight after, people might start to wonder about us ..." Hammer told Variety about the reason why he doesn't want to star as Batman opposite his "The Man from UNCLE" co-star.

Manganiello previously teased that production for "The Batman" will start in the spring of 2017. Affleck will both star in and direct the movie.

"The movie I think is going to be called The Batman. At least that's what we're going with now. I might change it," Affleck said about his standalone movie. "We're working on the script. The script is going well. I'm really excited about it." It is said that a huge part of the story will be original, but some parts will be based on unspecified comic books. It is also rumored that the villain Red Hood will appear in the movie. That theory, however, has since been debunked.

Warner Bros. announced release dates of Oct. 5, 2018 and Nov. 1, 2019 for two DCEU movies. It is speculated that one of these dates is reserved for "The Batman."

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Topics Ben Affleck