Of course Morgan Freeman is going to be asked what he thinks about the new Batman. There’s nothing better than someone from one incarnation of Batman slagging off another, and Freeman sort of obliged. Although his comments are more like the “reasonable caveats” than “lobbing a firebomb at Zack Snyder’s house.”
Freeman told Entertainment Tonight:
You know, I’m happy for Ben [Affleck], but I don’t know how that’s gonna work. Because the Dark Knight was almost ‘it.’ Pretty much ‘it,’ Did you see Batman Begins? I don’t think you can beat that.
You can almost imagine a patronizing Freeman patting Affleck on the head and saying, “Good for you and your massive back tattoo, Ben!” when you read that.
It’s not quite the clickbait-y “Morgan Freeman Dropkicks Ben Affleck and Batman v Superman Through a Glass Wall and Spits on Their Corpses” that Entertainment Tonight was probably hoping for, but it isn’t the unqualified endorsement you kind of expect everyone in Hollywood to give everyone else.
Christian Bale, by the way, was really pleased by his former castmate’s endorsement. “Everyone brings their own element to that—Ben will do that as well,” he said. “I think the trailers are looking great and I’m looking forward to that. But right on for Morgan for saying no one will ever be that, I very much like him.”
That’s very politic, since I sincerely doubt he’s actually going to see Batman v Superman. Although if he does, I would give a left arm to be there to watch him watch someone else be Batman.