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Michael Keaton on Why He Returned as Batman for The Flash, Batgirl

Published Thu, 23 Dec 2021 08:17:10 -0600

Last updated Thu, 23 Dec 2021 21:51:01 -0600

As the superhero genre across film and television continues to evoke conventional wisdom, once an actor completes their time as said hero, the torch will be carried over to the next actor, similar to the James Bond franchise. It's not really the case anymore as long as budgets for such projects get inflated and the sandbox expands across generations at the live-action front. Marvel fans are experiencing this most blatantly in Spider-Man: No Way Home and DC/Warner Bros are doing such projects like Crisis on Infinite Earths on television and now The Flash for DCEU that has not one, but two Batmans starting with Michael Keaton, reprising his role from the Tim Burton films, and Ben Affleck, who played the role in the DCEU films.

The Flash: Michael Keaton on Marvel, DC, and Revisiting Batman — Image courtesy of Warner Bros

Michael Keaton on His Return as Batman

Keaton, who last played the role in 1992 in Burton's only sequel Batman Returns spoke with Variety while promoting his Hulu limited series Dopesock about why he returned after being away for nearly 30 years. "What would that be like?' or 'What if I had to do that again,'" he recalled asking himself. "Just because I was curious didn't mean I wanted to do it. So it took a long time, frankly… I'm not just gonna say I'll do it. It has to be good. And there has to be a reason." Apparently, the actor had such a good time on the Andy Muschietti film; he'll also appear in the upcoming Batgirl film for HBO Max that stars Leslie Grace. In the 1989 original, Keaton's Caped Crusader battled Jack Nicholson's Joker, and in the 1992 sequel, he took on Danny DeVito's Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman. The It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star wrote: "Bird Cat Love" that revisited the Penguin-Catwoman relationship for the DC comic Gotham City Villains, even going as far as getting Burton and Pfeiffer's blessing. The Flash comes to theaters on November 4, 2022. Batgirl recently started production and will be released sometime in 2022.