The two-time Oscar winner that played the caped crusader of Gotham city in 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' (2016) and 'Justice League' (2017) including a cameo in 'Suicide Squad' (2016), was initially supposed to direct and star in the upcoming 'The Batman'. Unfortunately, that did not materialize well for him and he backed out of the film. Now, Matt Reeves is co-writing and directing, and Robert Pattinson is starring in 'The Batman'.

In an interview published by The New York Times, he said his struggles with alcohol, his divorce from Jennifer Garner, and a "troubled shoot" on 'Justice League' prompted him to abandon the role of Bruce Wayne.

`I showed somebody The Batman script. They said, 'I think the script is good. I also think you'll drink yourself to death if you go through what you just went through again.'"

Affleck said he `drank relatively normally,` but then things got out-of-control.

`I drank relatively normally for a long time. What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart. You're trying to make yourself feel better with eating or drinking or sex or gambling or shopping or whatever,` the actor and director explained. `But that ends up making your life worse. Then you do more of it to make that discomfort go away. Then the real pain starts. It becomes a vicious cycle you can't break. That's at least what happened to me.`

Affleck's marriage to Garner ended in 2018 after a long separation. Despite Affleck's performance that received mixed reviews, viewers were still baffled when he walked out of Reeves' film. Other actors that have portrayed the Dark Knight onscreen are Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Adam West and of course, Christian Bale.

After Affleck left, the Twilight star Robert Pattinson was roped in to play the title character. Matt Reeves released the first look of The Batman last week and the internet went gaga over the new bat-symbol on the bat-suit and especially Pattinson's jawline.

Matt Reeves' The Batman co-stars Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Andy Serkis, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Jayme Lawson, and Peter Sarsgaard. It's slated to hit the theaters on June 25, 2021.