Just Wayne you thought it was safe to rob Gotham, Batman returns.

IS NEXT UP TO BAT…

It’s amazing that people are still sticking by me. When they come up to me in the street, I want to write them all cheques.” So said Michael Keaton when he made a major comeback playing washed-up superhero actor Riggan in 2014 hit Birdman. It was a success he built on, playing antagonist Adrian ‘Vulture’ Toomes in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and landing roles in the upcoming Aaron Sorkin drama The Trial Of The Chicago 7 and superhero movie Morbius (perhaps playing Vulture again).

Well, he’s going to need a bigger chequebook now, because there will be a lot more people coming up to him: Keaton, at 68, is in talks to reprise his role as Batman.

He of course played the Caped Crusader in Tim Burton’s seminal Batman in 1989, and again three years later in Burton’s dark, bonkers sequel Batman Returns. But considering he reportedly turned down $15m to show his Bat-nipples in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever, it’s quite the surprise that he’s now thinking of suiting up once more.

Make that several times more, because it’s thought that Keaton’s Batman will pop up in several future DCEU movies. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First up would be a role of unspecified proportions in The Flash, the first solo outing for Ezra Miller’s scarlet-suited speedster after lending support in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Suicide Squad and Justice League. In The Flash, Barry Allen will travel back in time to save his mother… and inadvertently cross into Burton’s Batman universe, which 30 years on, is still protected by Keaton’s Bruce Wayne.

This film will introduce the DCEU to the multiverse concept familiar from DC Comics (it’s already been introduced in TV’s Arrowverse, where Grant Gustin’s Flash met Miller’s Flash in The CW’s Crisis On Infinite Earths), so it’s possible that, say, Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker might one day battle Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. Hell, Keaton’s Batman could even rub shoulder pads with Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight, though Matt Reeves’ The Batman is currently billed as existing in its own universe.

Confusing? Yes. Exciting? Oh yes. JG

ETA | 2022 TBC / THE FLASH IS CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION.