As tends to be the case with any hotly-anticipated comic book blockbuster, The Flash has already come in for a barrage of backlash, criticism, and far-fetched conspiracy theories, with Michael Keaton’s Batman becoming the latest subject.
Even though Tim Burton’s Dark Knight is already on his way out of the DCU door given recent developments that saw Batgirl canned and his cameo excised from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in favor of a Ben Affleck guest spot, the line of inquiry capturing the online imagination would technically leave the door open for a return further down the line.
After all, James Gunn has admitted he plans to interweave the DCU across film, television, live-action, and animation, while his confirmation that Elseworlds projects like The Batman and Joker sequels exist as part of a wider multiverse means it can’t be ruled out that a mammoth Marvel Cinematic Universe-style crossover could one day be on the cards.
With that in mind, what if Keaton isn’t playing the Bruce Wayne we first met we back in 1989, but an alternate version of his father Thomas instead?
We probably should have mentioned that a helping of salt would be required to take the scuttlebutt at face value, but it’d be one hell of a twist were Keaton to be revealed as the Flashpoint version of Batman.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan was once in line to take up that mantle during the SnyderVerse era, but it would be quite the rug-pull were it to transpire that the veteran actor’s second stab at the Caped Crusader came with a potentially earth-shattering revelation attached.
