Ben Affleck on why he's retiring as Batman - and how his seven-year-old son took the news

Cape Town - While fans were stunned to hear Ben Affleck won't be involved in the next Batman movie, his son, Samuel, has dealt with the news surprisingly well.

In an interview with ET Online on Sunday 3 March the 46-year-old actor talks about the seven-year-old's reaction when he heard his dad would no longer play the DC Comics character.

"He took the news okay," Ben said. "He kind of understands that there's time for everything."

The Justice League actor, who was originally set to direct the Batman movie, recently revealed why he couldn’t make it work, Comic Book reports.

"We worked on the script," he said. "I was trying to figure out how to crack it and I was never happy enough with it where I thought it was worth going out and making it, because I just didn't want to do a version that I wasn't really excited by. So I still don't know.”

Ben recently told talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel that he hoped to pave the way for a new actor to take over the character, IGN reports.

"I've decided – I tried to direct a version of it, worked with a really good screenwriter, but couldn't come up with a version," Ben said.

"Couldn't crack it. So I thought it was time to let someone else take a shot at it, and they got some really good people."

Sources: ET online, Yahoo, Comic Book