Gary Oldman says Ben Affleck might not live up to Christian Bale as Batman

Credit: Warner Bros.

Before Christopher Nolan tackled the Batman franchise, the films we had seen ranged from harrowing and dark to cheesy and stupid. Nolan grounded the franchise in a gritty reality and that had a lot to do with Christian Bale’s performance as the Caped Crusader.

Bale truly was the Dark Knight, and his amazing portrayal is why fans were so against the idea of Oscar-winning actor Ben Affleck stepping into the role. Gary Oldman has been talking about Batman quite a lot recently thanks to the franchise regaining popularity and Oldman’s role in RoboCop causing him to do the rounds with the press.

This week, Oldman commented to E! on the comparisons between Christian Bale’s Batman and the still unseen Ben Affleck Batman, stating that Affleck has a lot to live up to.

"‘He’s got a hard cowl to climb into because I thought Christian had made such a signature on it. But Ben is a wonderful actor, so I’m intrigued to see what he does’ he told E! Online, adding: ‘Ben will do fine. I think he’ll do fine.’"

We all know that the odds are stacked against Affleck stepping into Bale’s shoes, but Oldman piling on the pressure definitely doesn’t help things.