Even though Batgirl was cancelled, the DC movie cost a pretty penny. The action movie was shot in Glasgow using a lot of pyrotechnics and so on. One aspect that definitely wasn’t going to be cheap was Batman actor Michael Keaton, who was to appear in the film as Bruce Wayne.
Unfortunately, we’ll likely never get to see what Keaton’s role in Batgirl ultimately looked like, since the thriller movie has been vaulted by Warner Bros as part of a tax write-off. That said, it’s been reported how much the Hollywood star made for his time on-set. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Keaton got a clean $2 million for his work on Batgirl.
The outlet states this was for a week’s shooting to culminate in a “glorified cameo”. Keaton was brought back into the DC fold for a trilogy of appearances: Batgirl, The Flash, and Aquaman 2. Batgirl is gone, The Flash has endured some turbulence due to lead actor Ezra Miller’s legal issues, and there’s potential for Keaton’s scene in Aquaman 2 to be cut.
If you’re keeping score, that’s quite a bit money to be dropped for scenes that may not survive the edit or on films that are being canned. Alas, we’re sure there’s some grander logic to these decisions.
Keaton played Batman in two Tim Burton movies, Batman (1989) and Batman Returns. He’s one of the more beloved stars to adopt the cowl, and his return has been a much-touted selling point of all the above projects. Right now, it seems like we might just get him in The Flash.
So, keep your eyes on The Flash release date. Check out our guides to watching the Batman movies in order, and The Batman 2 release date, for more caped crusading.