Questions have been surrounding the news broken by Variety today, that Warner Bros. have been looking at Ben Affleck to direct the planned Justice League film. The news exploded further when Deadline counter-reported, only hours after the original announcement, that Affleck has already declined the job.

After guiding The Town to success Affleck has gained a place on many studios list of trusted film-makers. He is the only candidate to be sent Will Beall‘s Justice League script so far, which the Gangster Squad scribe wrote last year.

But doubts surrounding Affleck’s ability to direct a superhero ensemble blockbuster, which will need to be at least within the same ball park as The Avengers, isn’t going to be easy and may as Deadline suggests never happen.

Competing with Marvel‘s The Avengers, DC Comics’ Justice League would bring the likes of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and others, together.

If Affleck goes on to direct it seems possible that he would also act in the film, as he has done in The Town and Argo, raising questions of who the star might be able to play if that happens.

Warner Bros., which has been in control of DC Comics for many years, has been bringing famous DC characters to both the big and small screen, with The Dark Knight trilogy and the upcoming Man of Steel film being the most notable and recent adaptations. They are also in the process of trying to develop films based on Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (reboot), The Flash and Batman (reboot/continuation).

Justice League is targeted to be released by the US summer of 2015, alongside Marvel’s Avengers 2, which as reported this week, will see Joss Whedon return to direct and write.

[UPDATE: He most likely won't. His reps did say that he declined the job already, as pointed out by Deadline, but it was also added that Affleck might still take a meeting.]

via Variety, Deadline