Michael Keaton May Return as Batman In ‘The Flash’
The actor is in talks to revisit the Caped Crusader role he last played 30 years ago.
Michael Keaton may be nearing 70 years old, but he isn’t necessarily slowing down. In an exclusive report, The Wrap revealed the actor could very well be ready to revisit the role that made him a star in 1989—Bruce Wayne, also known as Batman.
Given that Keaton was still kicking ass in American Assassin just three years ago as operative and trainer Mitch Hurley, this may not be such a big stretch.
Keaton would join Ezra Miller in his character’s standalone movie, The Flash. Caution: The Wrap does note that talks with Keaton “are in the very early stages” and this isn’t a done deal, yet.
The question remains, though: Why? Didn’t Ben Affleck already portray a middle-aged Bruce Wayne alongside Miller in the Justice League? Yes, but the creative universe underpinning comic book stories isn’t that simple. More from The Wrap:
That plot will introduce general audiences to the idea of the multiverse, one of the of core concepts underpinning DC Comics.
For the non fanboy set, the multiverse refers to a shifting number of alternate universes that coexist within the larger reality depicted in DC comics. Originally created to explain various contradictory changes the company’s characters experienced over decades, it allows several different versions of the same characters to simultaneously exist and, occasionally, interact…
The same article also states that Matt Reeves’s The Batman “will not be affected and Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne is still viewed as the future of the franchise.”
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If Keaton takes his old role back for The Flash, the movie’s plotline will reportedly ignore the much-loathed 1995 Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, made in 1997, essentially picking up Keaton’s Bruce Wayne wherever he is 30 years after the actor last appeared in the role in Batman Returns.
The Wrap reports Keaton’s Bruce Wayne would come back due to Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen going back in time to stop his mother’s death. In the process, Allen would accidentally create a different timeline that incorporates Michael Keaton’s, 60-something Batman.
The Flash is tentatively set to begin production in early 2021.