It appears that there’s no such thing as too many Batmen, because the news has just broken that Michael Keaton has officially entered talks with Warner Bros. to reprise the role of Bruce Wayne in multiple future installments of the DCEU, starting with The Flash.
Not content with Robert Pattinson suiting up for Matt Reeves’ The Batman, or Ben Affleck returning to our screens in the Snyder Cut of Justice League and possibly a solo movie of his own, or even the recent rumors that Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Thomas Wayne would be assuming the mantle of the Caped Crusader for It director Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of the Flashpoint arc, DC’s shared universe is now in the process of bringing back the man who first starred as the Dark Knight in Tim Burton’s Batman over 30 years ago.
The first stage of Keaton’s Batman renaissance will be in The Flash, before he’s set to move into what’s being described as a Nick Fury-esque position where he would mentor the franchise’s younger heroes. Obviously, there’s a whole lot to unpack from this bombshell, and what it could mean for both the near and distant futures of the DCEU.
Not only does it seemingly confirm that the studio have given up on trying to have The Batman folded into canon, but if Keaton’s Bruce Wayne will show up in The Flash, then it looks a whole lot more likely that Morgan’s Flashpoint version of the character is also going to appear. Perhaps the most tantalizing prospect though is that we could finally be on the verge of seeing a live-action Batman Beyond adaptation, which has been heavily rumored over the last year with Keaton’s involvement.
Now that the 68 year-old is returning to the role that defined his career to show all the young pretenders how it should be done, the possibilities are both infinite and incredibly exciting, and it surely won’t be too long before we find out more about what the future holds for the original big screen Batman upon his return.