Ben Affleck didn’t know that Jennifer Garner was going to make that divorce joke in Deadpool & Wolverine. Director Shaun Levy said that they vetted the joke with the 13 Going On 30 actress but did not run it by the Batman v. Superman actor at all.
In the film, Jennifer Garner reprises her role as Elektra from the 2003 film Daredevil where Affleck played the titled blind hero. Deadpool offers his sympathies for Daredevil, who is also Elektra’s love interest. She shrugs and says, “It’s fine.” On Josh Horowitz’s podcast “Happy Sad Confused” , Levy told the host that the joke wasn’t ran by Affleck. “That joke was not, as far as I know, vetted by Ben,” the director said. “But we made clear to Jen — as we made clear to everyone — everything’s on the table in Deadpool.”
Levy later clarified that he did talk to Affleck about another instance in the flim. “I later spoke with Ben because the end credits have this tribute reel to the legacy of FOX Marvel movies and so that gave us the occasion to speak to everyone because we needed and wanted everyone’s permission,” he said.
Related: All the Deadpool & Wolverine spoilers in one place
Affleck and Garner met on the set of Daredevil and Pearl Harbor and later married in 2005. They finalized their divorce in 2018 and Affleck reunited with his former flame Jennifer Lopez. Lopez and Affleck are currently in the news cycle as going through divorce rumors after they married in 2022.
Levy also talked with Variety about they were about to include Ben Affleck in the box office smash movie. “Early on, when we were looking at a 70-name menu of Marvel characters, Daredevil was on one of those lists, but never since those earliest of conversations, and never to the point of outreach or offers or anything like that,” he said. “We made contact with everyone featured in the Fox tribute reel halfway through our end credits — and that’s dozens of actors who have been a part of that legacy. That was fun to build a love letter to those years, those characters, and all the actors who played them.”
