Michael Keaton has said the first shot of Batman in the upcoming Flash movie will blow our bat-socks off. In an interview with Collider to promote his new film, The Protégé, the Beetlejuice star spoke about how easy it was to get back into the Batman character, adding that he believes that director Andy Muschietti has managed to channel Tim Burton’s aesthetic into the DCEU.
“[It was] weirdly and ironically easy. A little bit emotional. Just a rush of memories. Without giving anything away, which I can’t, basically the first shot, not of the entire movie but let’s say the introduction [of Batman], is so good that when we walked on and started talking about a couple of shots and the angles, I went ‘whoa, this is big,” Keaton said. “This is great.’ I don’t even mean for me. Just the imagery, it’s great. And reminiscent, to some degree, of Tim Burton.”
In a separate interview, Keaton spoke about how it felt slipping on the Dark Knight’s iconic rubber trousers. “It was shockingly normal. It was weird. Like I went, ‘Oh, oh yeah, that’s right’,” Keaton explained to Jake Hamilton. “But also then you start to play the scenes, and it was a lot of memories, a lot of interesting sense memories.”
Keaton first played the Caped Crusader in Tim Burton’s 1989 superhero masterpiece Batman. Regarded by some people(or this writer at least) as the best Batman ever, fans were delighted to hear he was returning for The Flash’s first solo outing. The Flash will see Ezra Miller return as Barry Allen, the fastest man alive, and the science fiction movie will reportedly explore the DCEU’s multiverse.
Flash producer Barbara Muschietti explained at the DCFanDome that the movie would be a bridge between the DCEU and other timelines, and would serve as a soft reboot of the superhero franchise. This explains how both Keaton’s Dark Knight and Ben Affleck’s version of the character can both appear in the same movie.
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Multiverses are all the rage in the superhero genre right now. The DCEU’s distinguished competition over at Marvel Studios has just taken its first steps into parallel dimensions. The Disney Plus show Loki ended with the birth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s multiverse, and the follow up What If…? has been exploring the ramifications of those events.
You can see Michael Keaton back in black when The Flash hits cinemas on November 4, 2022. In the meantime, check out our guide on how to watch the Arrowverse in order. There’s a version of Batman in there that’s mind-blowing.