Michael Keaton is in talks to return as Batman for The Flash movie!

Holy making fans happy, Batman!

After the news over the last few days that Andy Muschietti’s Flash movie would be Flashpoint and will feature the return of Ray Fisher as Cyborg and will also feature Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the Flashpoint version of Batman as Thomas Wayne, the father of murdered Bruce Wayne, becomes the Dark Knight in that story, now we have what may be the biggest bit of Nerd news of the century!

Michael Keaton is in talks to return as Batman in The Flash movie as an older version of the Batman/Bruce Wayne he played in 1989 and 1992’s Batman and Batman Returns.

HOLY CRAP!

The Flashpoint Paradox ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/iDLKG5yNoP

— Fanvax (@fanvax_) June 23, 2020

Of course, this isn’t the first time we have heard that Warners want to have Keaton back as an older version of that Batman with us reporting on it last October (here) and then the fandom’s excitement over him getting a cool nod in The CW’s Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover event (here) and it’s always met with triumphant excitement from the fans whenever Keaton’s name is mentioned in the role.

So, the madness today kicked off when the official Batman social media pages shared this:

Then this rumour broke with the idea being that, following on from the groundwork done by The CW in the Crisis event, we’re going to get an even bigger dive into the Multiverse than we even got there… remember when the two Flashes met? Well, that was small potatoes compared to this.

Flashpoint will, as we have speculated several times, really open up the idea of the multiverse to the cinemagoing audience, with Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen/The Flash going back through time to change the murder of his mother, creating an alternate timeline in which a new reality happens… this is how Thomas Wayne’s Batman will come to be but along the way – as seen in The CW’s clip above – he will also pass through other worlds and realities, including the one – Universe 89 according to the Crisis event – where Michael Keaton is the older Batman we first met in 1989.

 

Tim Burton’s movie changed my life forever – I was 12 when that movie came out and it was the first time I ever became obsessed with something and it was what led to my love for movies, comics, set design, scores and much, much more, so the idea of Keaton returning is very, very exciting, indeed.

The movie will be written by Birds of Prey’s Christina Hodson based on a story by DC Comics legend Christina Hodson, the man who basically created the multiverse.

The report says: “Matt Reeves upcoming “The Batman” will not be affected and Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne is still viewed as the future of the franchise” which makes me think the movie will firmly establish that Pattinson’s Batman will be explained in The Flash as an other universe… this leaves the door open for the return of Affleck which we’ve also heard rumoured (here) and also for Reeves’ Batman to co-exist.

But that is just the start… this means that Joker can be part of the Multiverse as well as any other iterations of DC characters the studio wants to go with… this is very exciting and very groundbreaking for a movie universe to try to go this big.

I would also speculate – as I did after the Crisis nod to Keaton – that this means Kilmer and Clooney’s Batman are both alternate universes too (although it’s been speculated that they are no longer canon at all) with the Flash movie “[exploring] what Keaton’s version of Batman has been up since we last saw him”.

UPDATE:

Additional news suggests that this version of Batman may hang around for future movies in a mentor role – much like Nick Fury in the MCU – and will tutor upcoming heroes such as Batgirl.

In a final update, Grace Randolph has now reported that, according to her sources, if Keaton is cast then Morgan will not be… so it sounds like if Keaton stays, the movie will not be Flashpoint. But if he doesn’t, then it will…

Remember in January Muschietti said this will be a “different version of Flashpoint than you’re expecting”? Well, maybe that’s what he was getting at…

As we have more news you will too, but this has FTN HQ buzzing tonight!

Let me know your thoughts, gang!

Source: The Wrap