Michael Keaton loves being Batman. He loves it so much that he made a movie about playing a caped superhero a few years back. He also referenced it in a college speech. Now, Michael Keaton is in talks to reprise his role on the silver screen as none other than the Dark Knight himself, Batman, in the upcoming Flash movie.
This news comes via a report from TheWrap. The talks are reportedly in very early stages, and it's not a sure thing at this point. According to the site, The Flash will introduce the idea of the multiverse to the DC cinematic universe, allowing Keaton's Batman to exist alongside Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader.
The CW's Arrowverse has been knee-deep in the multiverse for years, and this last fall and winter the network flattened the multiverse again with the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover event. That crossover hit a huge moment when the CW's Barry Allen, played by Grant Gustin, had a multiversal encounter with Ezra Miller's Barry Allen. That crossover leaves us wondering if Gustin himself might not appear in the Flash film, too, seeing how his character seemed to give Ezra's the idea to call himself The Flash in the first place.
This of course opens up the opportunity for all kinds of weirdness. Michael Keaton could play an older Bruce Wayne in a Batman Beyond movie. Ben Affleck could play Batman again--even though that seems like a true longshot. This would be a super cool move for the DC movie franchise that would help set it apart from Marvel's box office accomplishments and embrace some of the weirdness of comics.
The Flash is currently set to start production in early 2021, pending COVID-19 complications. Andy Muschietti, director of It and It: Chapter Two is currently helming the film following the departures of Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, Rick Famuyiwa, Seth Grahame-Smith, and John Francis Daley & Johnathan Goldstein as one-time directors of the troubled production.
