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Michael Keaton says putting on the Batsuit for The Flash felt “shockingly normal”

Michael Keaton says putting on the Batsuit for the new DCEU movie The Flash felt "shockingly normal"

Michael Keaton Batsuit: Batman (1989)

It’s been 29 years since Michael Keaton last donned Batman’s rubber cape and cowl, but he apparently slipped the suit on for The Flash without skipping a beat. Keaton, who’s currently filming the scarlet speedster’s first solo DCEU movie, took a break from production to chat to Jake Hamilton about his new film, The Protégé.

Inevitably, the chat turned to Keaton reprising the role of the Caped Crusader, and Jake asked how he felt squeezing into Batman’s leather trousers. “It was shockingly normal. It was weird. Like I went, ‘Oh, oh yeah, that’s right’,” Keaton explained. “But also then you start to play the scenes, and it was a lot of memories, a lot of interesting sense memories.”

Keaton didn’t elaborate on what those interesting memories were precisely, but we imagine he’s under a pretty strict embargo to keep the Flash’s story as secret as possible. The Flash will see Ezra Miller return as the fastest man alive, Barry Allen, and will reportedly explore the multiverse. This explains how both Michael Keaton’s version of Batman and Ben Affleck’s take on the character can both reportedly appear in the same movie.

While at the DC FanDome event last year, Flash producer Barbara Muschietti claimed the movie would serve as a bridge between the DCEU and other timelines. Muschietti went on to say The Flash will serve as a soft reboot of the superhero franchise, allowing them to start again while still acknowledging what came before. “Flash is the superhero of this film because he is the bridge between all of these characters and timelines,” she said during the event. “And in a way, it restarts everything and doesn’t forget anything.”

One timeline that we’re unlikely to return to is whatever universe Batman Forever occupies. Val Kilmer recently explained in a documentary about his life and career that he hated wearing the Batsuit. “Whatever boyhood excitement I had was crushed by the reality of the Batsuit,” the actor says in the documentary. “Yes, every boy wants to be Batman. They actually want to be him… not necessarily play him in a movie.”

 

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Apparently, the suit was made of extremely hard rubber that made moving in the suit difficult. As moving is a pretty big component of acting, I’m sure you can see why this would be a problem. Kilmer found one way to express himself, though, putting his hands on his hips.

“I think it made no difference what I was doing. I tried to be like an actor on a soap opera,” he explains. “When I would turn to Nicole [Kidman]…I couldn’t count how many times I put my hands on my hips.”

See if Keaton puts his hands on his hips when The Flash crosses the finish line into theatres on November 4, 2022. In the meantime check out our guide on how to watch the Arrowverse in order.