Update: Despite initial reports that Michael Keaton was set to be the DCEU's main Batman across his own set of films, New York Times writer Brooks Barnes is clarifying his paragraph regarding DC Films president Walter Hamada's quote about two different film sagas involving Batman where he will be played by two different actors. Barnes has revealed that Michael Keaton has not been attached to any other DCEU projects at this time, beyond The Flash. You can check out Barnes' tweet about the matter below:
Been offline (moving apartments) and return to see this Michael Keaton craziness. I was referring to the *one film* that Keaton has been announced as being in, not a set of his own Batman films. If I had info on him beyond "The Flash," I would have obviously put it in my article
— Brooks Barnes (@brooksbarnesNYT) January 5, 2021
We were all a little shocked when it was revealed last June that Michael Keaton would be reprising his role of Bruce Wayne/Batman for Warner Bros.' The Flash. The upcoming film will reportedly find Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) traveling back in time to save his mother, but instead creating an alternate universe in which Micheal Keaton's Batman is still operating. At the time, sources said that Keaton might take on a role similar to Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, serving as something of a mentor/guide/string-puller in a handful of DCEU movies.
DC Films president Walter Hamada dropped a lot of news about the future of the DCEU just last week during an interview with The New York Times; The profile included the following tidbit: "Warner Bros. will have two different film sagas involving Batman — played by two different actors — running at the same time." One of those Batman is obviously Robert Pattinson, stars of Matt Reeves' The Batman, but readers weren't completely quite sure who the second Batman would be. When the author of the piece, Brooks Barnes, was asked to elaborate on Twitter, he confirmed that the second Batman is Michael Keaton.
Keaton
— Brooks Barnes (@brooksbarnesNYT) January 2, 2021
This would seem to confirm that we'll be seeing more of Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman in future DCEU movies, but as with anything in regards to the realm of comic-book movies, don't take this as a guarantee. Keaton isn't the only Batman set to appear in The Flash as Ben Affleck is also set to return to the role one more time. "[Affleck's] a very substantial part of the emotional impact of the movie," said The Flash director Andy Muschietti. "The interaction and relationship between Barry and Affleck’s Wayne will bring an emotional level that we haven’t seen before. It’s Barry’s movie, it’s Barry’s story, but their characters are more related than we think. They both lost their mothers to murder, and that’s one of the emotional vessels of the movie. That’s where the Affleck Batman kicks in. He’s the baseline. He’s part of that unaltered state before we jump into Barry’s adventure. There's a familiarity there." Production on The Flash is expected to kick off this spring for a November 4, 2022 release.
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