The internet went into meltdown earlier this year when it was announced that Michael Keaton would be returning to play Batman in The Flash, which will arrive 30 years after he last donned the cape and cowl. If that wasn’t exciting enough, the 69 year-old was also reported to have signed a lengthy contract with the studio, and given his age, that surely only meant one thing.
Yes, Keaton is at the perfect point in his life to play the older version of Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond, and fans have wanted a live-action adaptation to happen for decades now. It almost came to fruition following Batman & Robin before Warner Bros. got cold feet at such a drastic reinvention for one of their biggest properties, and instead sent the Caped Crusader into hibernation until Christopher Nolan came along.
Even before Keaton became involved with The Flash, though, we’d heard that he was being eyed for a return to the world of superhero blockbusters, and there’s clearly room for plenty of Batmen in the DCEU given that Ben Affleck and Robert Pattinson are both involved as well. In fact, Small Screen is now claiming that while Batman Beyond is still on the table, it may end up as an HBO Max series rather than a feature film. But either way, Keaton will indeed return for it.
In all honesty, that probably makes the most sense, too. After all, the episodic format would give casual fans more time to sink their teeth into a wildly different Dark Knight story than the ones they’ve become accustomed to, while the actor wouldn’t be forced to take center stage. Regardless, Batman Beyond seems almost inevitable at this point, and whether it comes to the big or small screen, one thing that can be guaranteed is that it will go down a storm with the fanbase.
