The return of Michael Keaton as Batman is one of the main claims of ‘The Flash’, the long-awaited DC superhero film that will deal, among other issues, with the multiverse. The last time Keaton got into the dark knight costume was in ‘Batman Returns’ 29 years ago, and by now no one was expecting him to do it again.
The actor has given an interview to The Hollywood Reporter in which he reviews different aspects of his career, including the fact of bringing this popular DC character back to life. At the time he said no to participate in ‘Batman Forever’ because he did not like the script of the film of Joel schumacher, but he always thought that he could take up the character and embroider it:
Honestly, in the bottom of my heart I always thought I could play him again and embroider that son of a bitch. And then I thought “Well, now that they are asking me, let’s see if I can do it.”
Keaton’s respect for Batman
Using the multiverse was something that Keaton I did not quite understand very well, since the actor also acknowledges in the interview that “after the first ‘Batman’ I’m not sure I’ve seen a full superhero movie“At least curious when not so long ago we could see him in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’, but he himself admits his doubts were his problem and not from ‘The Flash’:
I had to read it more than three times to think “Wait, how does this work”. They had to explain it to me several times. By the way, I hope I’m not being arrogant about that. I don’t mean “I’m too cool.” I am an idiot. There are a lot of things that I don’t know anything about. And I don’t know, I’m just trying to figure it out, but this was different. What’s really interesting is how much of Batman I had when I replayed him. I understand it in a totally different way now. You have all my respect. I respect what people are trying to do. I never thought of it like “This is bullshit.” It wasn’t when I played Batman, but now it has become culturally giant, iconic. So I have even more respect because what will I know. This is very important to the people in the world. You have to honor him and be respectful. Even I say “Jesus, this is huge.”
The premiere of ‘The Flash’ is scheduled for November 4, 2022. In it we can also see Ben Affleck taking up the character of Batman in what promises to be the most important DC Extended Universe superhero movie to date.