Affleck losing Snyder was his career low

Ben Affleck has two Oscars on his shelf. Still, when Josh Horowitz asked about Batman on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on Monday, October 12, he pointed to a very specific moment as rock bottom.

Boy, that was s***ty, him being taken off that movie and the reshoots that we did. If you want the low point of my career, it was that.

Ben Affleck on Happy Sad Confused, 10/12/2026, at 0:45 of the excerpt published by the podcast

The “he” is Zack Snyder. In May 2017, with Justice League already filmed, Snyder left the project after the death of his daughter, Autumn. Joss Whedon took over, reshot much of it and Warner released a two-hour version that failed. Snyder’s only came out in 2021, after years of campaigning by fans.

For Affleck, the diagnosis is simple.

I really saw how not to make a movie like that, which is when the studio is at odds with the filmmaker. (…) That was what really doomed that.

Ben Affleck on Happy Sad Confused, 10/12/2026, at 0:15 of the excerpt

He also separated things. The drinking and the divorce, which took place at the same time, hurt, but according to him that wasn’t what ruined the film. The tragedy of Snyder’s family gained the harshest sentence in the interview.

And then the way in which that was, I thought, frankly, used as an excuse. I just thought it was one of the s***tiest things I’d ever seen.

Ben Affleck on Happy Sad Confused, 10/12/2026, at 1:25 of the excerpt

He didn’t say who used it. He said he didn’t see everything and that he heard, second-hand, what Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot went through on set. Regarding the Snyder Cut, I can only praise: he was happy and fulfilled that Zack managed to release his version, and he called the path he found smart. And, according to The Playlist, it was this experience that took away his desire to direct the solo Batman that was in the plans.

Notice the date. The conversation was to promote Animals, his new film with Ray Fisher in the cast, which debuted in first place among English-language films on Netflix, with 23.8 million views in three days. And it aired six days after Warner ceased to exist as a company and became part of Skydance. A month earlier, Snyder had told Variety that an executive at the time admitted that he was right, as we said in Snyder was right, an executive admitted.

Batman needed to say it out loud. There’s no more left.