In some potentially amazing news, Michael Keaton may be set to finally don the cape and cowl once again.
Via The Wrap, Keaton is reportedly in early talks to play Batman in Andy Muschietti’s The Flash.
That first solo outing for Ezra Miller’s Scarlet Speedster is to be based upon Geoff Johns’ iconic Flashpoint comic book arc. In Flashpoint, Barry Allen goes back in time to save his mother from being killed. But as a result of changing history, Allen awakens in the modern-day to a skewed version of the regular timeline.
In this new timeline, not only does Barry not have his superspeed, but Bruce Wayne died that night in Crime Alley, Thomas Wayne became a brutal, alcoholic Batman, Martha Wayne became The Joker, Green Arrow is an arms dealer, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are at bloody war with one another, Superman has been kept as a lab experiment ever since he crash-landed onto Earth, and Cyborg is the planet’s greatest hero.
There had been rumblings that The Flash would feature Jeffrey Dean Morgan reprising his Thomas Wayne role from Batman v Superman and possibly become the Flashpoint Batman, but this Keaton news is way out of left-field – and in the best possible way.
Keaton famously played the Caped Crusader in Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns. His involvement in The Flash is far from confirmed at this early juncture, and talks are said to be in the tentative stages right now.
It’s believed that the current plan is to have Keaton very much play the Bruce Wayne version of Batman that we last saw on the silver screen back in 1992. The Flash will ignore Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, with the older Dark Knight positioned in a Nick Fury-esque role overseeing certain younger heroes.
Should everything fall into place, there’s scope for Keaton’s Batman to appear in further DC-driven movies down the line – with the prospect of those long-gestating Batgirl and Nightwing movies clearly standing out on that front.
To clarify, the plan at the moment is for Matt Reeves’ Robert Pattinson-fronted The Batman to exist away from what we’ve seen in the DC Extended Universe so far – which obviously includes The Flash.
Of course, in the DCEU, we’ve seen Ben Affleck as Batman. While it could possibly be done where Keaton and Affleck have both played the same version of Bruce Wayne/Batman, the more likely event is that the use of the multiverse and alternative Earths will be ‘in’ to get Keaton’s take on the World’s Greatest Detective into The Flash.
At this stage, The Flash is currently awaiting a new release date. And as ever, expect more on this movie and any Michael Keaton developments as and when we get it.
