These are dark days for the Dark Knight.

Less than two weeks after Ben Affleck announced he would not direct The Batman, a solo film that would see him continue his role as the Caped Crusader following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, comes a report in Forbes that the movie will need “major rewrites” or possibly “a completely new script” whenever someone is hired to assume the director’s chair. They even hint at the possibility (“on the low end of odds“) that Affleck may not don the cape and cowl at all for The Batman.

More from Forbes on the latest developments:

The project will undergo substantial changes and possible/probably another full rewrite ... Word is the project will essentially get a fresh start once a new creative team has been put together.

According to Forbes, Warner Bros. is currently meeting with directors to take over the project, with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Matt Reeves pegged as “the frontrunner” for the time being. The report also calls into question whether The Batman will retain Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke, who was originally envisioned as one of the film’s main villains in the screenplay written by Affleck and Geoff Johns (with an assist by Justice League and Argo writer Chris Terrio). If the film really is about to undergo substantial revisions, that could include an entirely new story and entirely new bad guys for Batfleck.

The Batman is supposed to debut in 2019. You don’t need to be the Clock King to know that time is running out to make that deadline.

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