WHAT DOES MICHAEL KEATON’S RETURN AS BATMAN MEAN FOR THE DCEU?

By: Keaton Marcus

the big news

Just recently, we got news reporting that Michael Keaton is in talks to reprise his role as Batman in upcoming origin story The Flash. This would be Keaton’s first time playing The Dark Knight since Batman Returns, which opened nearly 30 years ago. If Keaton and WB have good negotiations, we could be seeing the Caped Crusader appear in the anticipated 2022 film alongside Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen. IGN writes that “…with that film setting up his character to be the DC equivalent of Nick Fury”, he was played by Samuel L. Jackson in the MCU.

This doesn’t just mean we get to see one of the most iconic Caped Crusaders cameo or even play a solid part in a DCEU flick, but worlds may just be able to collide because of this casting choice. We may even be able to see classic actors and actresses reprise their roles in completely different universes!

the flashpoint comics

We have gotten reports that indicate The Flash is based on the 2011 comics strip Flashpoint, involving Barry Allen travelling back in time to prevent his mother’s murder while accidentally creating a darker DC timeline in the process. This timeline presents Captain Cold as Central City’s greatest hero, Superman as nonexistent and the Justice League never have been formed.

That premise does sound interesting to be in a movie, but what will it mean to the DCEU timeline? Michael Reeves is doing his own little thing with his The Batman, but both The Flash and Wonder Woman 1984 seem to be staying true to the timeline so far. We do not quite know whether James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad will follow or not.

2013’s DC animated movie Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox used Barry’s time travel as a foundation for their own universe! That continued with the recent Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. To be honest, there’s not a ton of evidence suggesting that The Flash won’t just continue off of that.

generations of batman

Bruce Wayne has been an iconic character ever since Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. In the timeline of actors who portrayed the Caped Crusader, we begin with Lewis Wilson, who played Bruce in 1943’s Batman, in 1949, Robert Lowery took over in Batman and Robin only to be replaced by Adam West in a ‘60s TV show and 1966’s Batman: The Movie. Michael Keaton was the first actor to play Batman in more than one film, leading Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman and the 1992 Batman Returns to both critical and commercial success. Since the year 2000, Christian Bale acted in The Dark Knight Trilogy from 2005-2012, Academy Award-winner Ben Affleck played the guy in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, had a cameo in Suicide Squad and reprised his role in 2017’s Justice League once again. Robert Pattinson will play Batman in 2021’s The Batman.

There have been so many actors, a few really good ones in fact, that have taken the role. George Clooney, Bale, Affleck…The list goes on. They even got comedian Will Arnett to lead The LEGO Batman Movie, which was a big success for Warner Bros. He’s arguably the most iconic hero in cinema ever, and there’s something special seeing Michael Keaton fight Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Danny DeVito as the tormented superhero. And now we get a ray of hope that Keaton will reprise his role!

I’m not crazy about it since we are just about to have Twilight’s Robert Pattinson take the role, but who doesn’t want to see Michael Keaton as the wise old man in a superhero movie. What’s truly mind-boggling is the fact that Keaton’s two Batman movies don’t take place in the DCEU timeline, and are considered just plain old DC films, similar to Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Dark Knight films. So what is his Batman doing in a DCEU movie?! Heck, maybe they’ll explain it all to us when we actually watch this thing.

what will happen to the DCEU?

Considering that Michael Keaton’s Batman is now able to join the DCEU universe, won’t others have the ability to hop in as well? I don’t think I’d be surprised if Pfeiffer’s Selina Kyle had a bit of a part, or perhaps Danny DeVito’s Penguin. If you really want to get nuts you could expect Jim Carrey’s Riddler! There are so many possibilities that characters from other universes can arrive in the DCEU timeline. While that would be totally epic, studios don’t generally go as crazy as fans want them to be.

But it’s still fun to imagine what it would be like if universes came together.