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This era of DC movies is arguably going to be remembered more for the movies that weren’t made than for the ones that were. Black Adam was fairly forgettable, but we’re never going to forget the whole situation around Batgirl, which was mostly shot and then shelved by Warner Bros. as a cost-cutting measure. In the last few days, we’ve been hearing more and more rumors about other announced DC projects that may never see the light of day now that a new team has taken charge of DC Studios, including Wonder Woman 3 and Man of Steel 2.
And here is another one. The Hot Mic With Jeff Sneider and John Rocha on YouTube claims that The Flash writer Christina Hodson had been working on a solo Batman movie that would have starred Michael Keaton, the iconic Dark Knight of the late ’80s and early ’90s who will reprise his role as Bruce Wayne in 2023’s The Flash. Keaton’s role in the future of the DC Universe is apparently in flux, but at one point he was going to become a regular fixture of DC movies post-Flash; he was in Batgirl, for example, before that movie was canceled.
Umberto Gonzalez of TheWrap responded to Sneider and Rocha’s discussion on Twitter, claiming that the “Michael Keaton Batman movie you’re talking about that Christina Hodson was writing, was in fact the Batman Beyond movie.”
Batman Beyond was the popular future spinoff to Batman: The Animated Series and its associated titles. Set years after the events of the other shows, it took place in a dark future where an older Bruce Wayne (voiced by the late Kevin Conroy) trains a new Batman; a teenager named Terry McGinnis. The show ran for three seasons and one direct-to-video movie in the early 2000s and remains a fan favorite.
Rumors of a Batman Beyond movie have come up now and then, and it would be an ideal concept for Keaton given his age. (He’s currently 71.) New DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn tweeted earlier this week that of the numerous rumors about the future of DC “some of it is true, some of it is half-true, some of it is not true, & some of it we haven’t decided yet whether it’s true or not.” He did not specifically address this Batman Beyond rumor or any rumor specifically.
No matter how many times this happens, it’s still amazing that DC finally convinced Michael Keaton to return to his role as Batman, then shot a second movie with him, and now perhaps had plans to make an entire solo movie around him, and then allegedly scrapped almost all of it. Isn’t this sort of strip-mining of nostalgia the one thing Hollywood is supposed to still be good at?
The Flash, which co-stars Michael Keaton (for now?) is currently scheduled for release in theaters on June 16, 2023. You can watch The Hot Mic podcast below.
Actors Who Turned Down DC Roles
These major stars could have played some of your favorite DC Comics’ heroes onscreen. But they all said no for one reason or another.
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