While Anson Mount gets to portray Batman in the upcoming DC animated film Injustice, he nearly took on the role of the Dark Knight in live action far earlier as part of the DC Extended Universe.
While promoting Injustice, Mount revealed that he screen-tested for the part of Batman in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before the role ultimately went to Ben Affleck. Mount recalls working extensively in an effort to land the role, including making preparations while filming the television series Hell on Wheels before casting went in a different direction.
"I guess I can tell this now, but I was vying for Batman v. Superman back in the day and worked my tail off on a super-secret audition and put myself on tape while I was shooting Hell on Wheels, and they had the [director of photography] come do it," Mount told CBR with a laugh. "We really worked hard on this thing, sent it in, and they gave it to Ben Affleck."
Shortly after Batman v. Superman opened in theaters in 2016, Mount would become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Black Bolt in the short-lived Inhumans television series. The show premiered in 2017 before its cancellation the following year. In 2019, Mount debuted as Captain Christopher Pike in Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 and is set to reprise the role for the spinoff series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, premiering sometime in 2022.
In the meantime, Mount portrays the Caped Crusader in the midst of a very different Batman/Superman conflict in Injustice, adapting the enormously popular fighting game franchise for the feature-length animated film. Like the source material expanding on the story and world, a grief-stricken Man of Steel attempts to brutally seize power at the head of his own regime, with Batman leading a desperate resistance movement to stop him. In addition to the original Injustice video game, the upcoming film takes its cues from the DC comic book Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year One.
Directed by Matt Peters, Injustice will be released on digital HD and Blu-ray Oct. 19. Warner Bros. recently released a set of stills from the film featuring Green Lantern (Brian T. Delaney), Wonder Woman (Janet Varney) Harley Quinn (Gillian Jacobs) and more fan-favorite characters.