Who Is Matthias Schoenaerts and Why Was He Zack Snyder's Second Choice for Batman?

2021 has turned out to be a great year for Zack Snyder. After being on the receiving end of fans' wrath since makingBatman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, he finally redeemed himself with the well-receivedJustice leagueHBO Max cut. In the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Snyder revealed that he had talked to actor Matthias Schoenaerts about taking on the role of Batman had Affleck passed it on prior to production onBatman V Superman. This surprised many fans. Snyder said this aboutMatthias Schoenaertspossibly donning the cape and cowl.

“I was talking to him a lot about it.He never got in the suit, but I did do a bunch of mock-ups of him because Ben was on the fence. And I don’t blame him. Everyone should be on the fence when you’re asked, ‘Do you want to play Batman?”

At the time of casting, Matthias Schoenaerts was concerned that he was too young to play an older version of Bruce Wayne inBatman V Superman. Schoenaerts is a Belgian actor who has worked in mostly in Belgian, French, British, and Hollywood films. Most fans will probably know him from Netflix’sThe Old Guard, where he acted alongside Charlize Theron and played “Booker”. He also played the villain in Tom Hardy’s vastly underratedThe Drop.

But his best roles were in the Oscar-nominatedBullheadandRust and Bone. He made his acting debut at the age of 13 in another Oscar-nominated film,Daens. Schoenaerts would have been 36 had he been cast inBatman V Supermanat the time of production way back in 2015. Instead of Ben Affleck, who was 42 at the time. While that’s not a big age difference, Schoenaerts was a relatively unknown actor at the time. And fans would have kept their expectations low. Ben Affleck on the other hand was a household name and previously ventured into superhero territory in the badly received 2003’sDaredevil.

Due to Schoenaerts youthful looks, we could have gotten a completely different version of Batman than we saw inBatman V SupermanandJustice League.Zack Snydertook inspiration from Frank Miller’sThe Dark Knight Returnscomic and Ben Affleck did justice to the older and more mature version of Bruce Wayne. Schoenaerts himself felt uncomfortable playing a forty-somethingBatmanand had he been cast, we may not have seen Frank Miller’s aged take on the Batman Vs. Superman fight. That didn’t happen, and we got a buff, violent and somewhat older caped crusader in the form of Ben Affleck who managed to silence his harshest critics.

While Joss Whedon’sJustice Leaguemay have mishandled the character, 2021’s Snyder Cutt redeemed him. And now Affleck is returning to don the cape one more time in the upcomingFlashmovie. Affleck was also supposed to make a solo film set in Arkham Asylum in which Batman goes head to head with Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke, but that seems unlike to happen now.

As for Schoenaerts, he has since then starred in some amazing movies and worked with acclaimed directors like Thomas Vinterberg, Terrence Mallick, and Steven Soderbergh. we could also see him in the sequel ofThe Old Guardwhich has been green-lit byNetflix.