Michael Keaton’s Batman Was Kicked Out From Jason Momoa’s Aquaman 2 Because of Ezra Miller’s ‘The Flash’
Michael Keaton was seen reprising his role as Batman after decades as he makes a comeback in Ezra Miller’s, The Flash. The credit for reviving Keaton’s role as Batman solely goes to The Flash filmmakers, Andy Muschietti and his sister, Barbara Muschietti. The duo has always been a great fan of Michael Keaton’s Batman and decided to bring back Keaton as Batman in full force. According to Muschietti, Keaton’s characterization of Bruce Wayne and Batman was mind-blowing.
Why Michael Keaton Is The Best Batman Ever
Michael Keaton’s mere presence in The Flash has single-handedly saved the film from being a total wreckage. Keaton is back in Batman’s boots, depicting a natural progression to the character he last played in Tim Burton’s 1992 sequel, Batman Returns. Seeing Keaton, it never seemed that Batman was away for such a long time. He isn’t the first actor to play Batman, as Lewis G. Wilson, who played the Caped Crusader in the 1945 Columbia Pictures serial has that honor. But he understood that he is playing two characters at once because of which Keaton is by far the best live-action version of Batman.
What makes Keaton’s performance so unique and praiseworthy is his approach toward the dual character of his role. While most previous actors focused more on the Bat and neglected Man, Keaton gives fair attention to Bruce Wayne because he realizes the importance of Bruce to the story as Batman. Keaton has wonderfully made Bruce as prominent as Batman and his performance in the movies command your attention. The Flash producer said,
“I never thought that Keaton would come back as Batman, let alone us doing it, and me directing.”
Michael Keaton’s Batman Nixed From Aquaman Sequel
In June 2020, as per The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Keaton was in talks to return as Batman in The Flash and was also supposed to reprise his role for several other DCEU film projects. Keaton was envisioned in a Nick-Fury-like role and Batgirl was predicted to be one of the films. However, in a shocking turn of events that left the industry puzzled, Warner Bros. Discovery outright canceled the release of Batgirl citing that the movie wasn’t releasable and would have further damaged DC and the actor’s image. Within a flash of time, the $90 million film was scraped off.
Michael Keaton had already shot his cameo for Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, as he would have been the new Batman moving forward after The Flash. Though Warner Bros. had postponed its release in March 2022 and eventually The Flash had been moved from November 4 to June 23, 2023, and the Aquaman sequel from December 16 to March 17, 2023.
As Keaton’s cameo would have caused a continuity error between The Flash and Aquaman 2, it was replaced with Ben Affleck reprising his role as Batman but ultimately Affleck’s cameo was also ditched. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the original ending for The Flash had appearances of Sasha Calle’s Supergirl and Michael Keaton’s Batman, reversing their deaths and signaling to Barry that he hadn’t fixed the timeline. The new ending included Henry Cavill’s Superman and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, with Keaton also remaining.
However, with James Gunn and Peter Safran commanding the charge, the ending was radically improvised removing everyone, including Keaton. All the previous cameos were replaced with Geroge Clooney reprising his role as Bruce Wayne while keeping the idea of Barry not fixing the timeline.
Source: The Direct
