Earlier today, we got some wild, unexpected news – Michael Keaton is reportedly in talks with Warner Bros. to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne in numerous upcoming DC movies, beginning with The Flash. This would be the first time Keaton has played the Dark Knight since 1992’s Batman Returns and the first major cross-franchise crossover in the DCEU. But it wouldn’t be the first time that Miller’s Flash and Keaton’s Batman have been shown to share continuity.
I’m speaking, of course, about The CW’s mega crossover event “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” which tied together countless DC screen franchises into the same multiverse. The Arrowverse miniseries’ first episode opened with a montage of various Earths being affected by the Anti-Monitor’s Anti-Matter wave. One was Earth-89, where we caught up with Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl) witnessing the skies above Gotham turning red. That told us this was the Earth of Keaton’s Batman.
In episode four, one of the best surprises of “Crisis” occurred when Grant Gustin’s Flash encountered Miller’s Scarlet Speedster in the Speed Force. We didn’t get an official designation for it, but this confirmed that the DCEU Earth is also part of the same multiverse as all the others, including Earth-89. What’s more, Miller’s Flash is now aware of the existence of the multiverse, which could prove key to his hopping over to other Earths in his own movie.
“Crisis” told us that the Batman was still operating in Gotham in the present day, though fans have noted that the Bat-signal depicted in this scene resembled Terry McGinnis’ Batman symbol. Could Keaton’s cameo in The Flash involve Barry Allen traveling to Earth-89 and encountering a retired Bruce who’s mentoring Terry as his replacement, as in Batman Beyond? Now that we know everything is truly connected, it doesn’t seem that far-fetched.