One of the main victims of all of the turmoil surrounding Warner Bros and the DC universe in the last year has been Michael Keaton. At one stage, it looked as though Keaton was to be reintroduced as the DCEU’s main Batman once more and he would have had a Nick Fury style mentorship role to the younger DC superheroes. After his comeback in The Flash, he was set to be seen in Batgirl – but, we all know what happened there.
However, writer, director and comic book nerd Kevin Smith believes there’s still hope that we may get a Batman Beyond movie starring Keaton. On his Fatman Beyond podcast, Smith said that he’d talked to a family member of Batman producer Michael Uslan.
“I was hoping that it did better than it did because Michael Uslan’s kid said that…if the movie did as well as The Batman – The Batman opened at $130 million – one of the next Batman movies they’re going to make is Batman Beyond with Michael Keaton. So I was like, ‘Oh, my God, now I hope this movie makes a lot of money.'” The Flash’s opening was only $55 million, so it’s looking unlikely, but not impossible.
Even though Batman Beyond may not happen now that James Gunn has taken over all things DC, there is nothing stopping DC Studios from making one as an Elseworlds project. That way, Michael Keaton could still return as a version of Bruce Wayne in a mentorship role, without clashing with Gunn’s plans and the continuity of the DC Universe. Hopefully, despite The Flash’s box office failure, a live-action Batman Beyond will somehow happen one day.
It’s a shame what has happened to Keaton in the recent DC turmoil, as he’s one of the best (if not, the best) Batman actors. He’s a very good actor in roles beyond Batman – recently in the likes of The Founder, Worth, and Dopesick – so, his career will continue to be strong without the need to don the rubber suit again. While we wait to see how things pan out, check out our guide to the best Batman villains.