Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Falah stirred the pot of online speculation when they admitted that HBO Max exclusive Batgirl would feature a special guest appearance from the Dark Knight himself. When pushed to reveal the identity of the Batman in question, they answered by saying “the real one”.
Given that The Batman has ruled itself out of the DCEU’s multiverse, that narrowed it down to a straight shootout between Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton, both of whom are set to appear in The Flash next November. There have been plenty of rumors that Affleck won’t be long for the franchise and Keaton will be sticking around for a while, so most folks were leaning towards the latter.
That appears to have been confirmed by Warner Bros., with the studio releasing an official 2022 movie preview kit that features information on plenty of major upcoming releases. Among them is Batgirl, which has Keaton slated to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne and his costumed alter ego.
However, there is a caveat, as all information comes burdened with a “credits are not final and dates are subject to change” disclaimer. That being said, the directors of Batgirl have confirmed there’s going to be a Batman, so all the evidence is pointing to the veteran crimefighter sticking around, perhaps to even act as a mentor figure of sorts for Leslie Grace’s Barbara Gordon.
