Warner Bros. and Michael Keaton surprised all of us when news officially broke of his return to the world of DC Comics for the upcoming Flash film, but it seems that Keaton isn’t done with the character yet. Michael Keaton will also play Bruce Wayne–and possibly Batman–in the upcoming HBO Max Batgirl film, Variety reports.
Keaton stars alongside Leslie Grace, who plays the titular character, Barbara Gordon, and her alter ego of Batgirl. J.K. Simmons is also returning to his character of Commissioner Jim Gordon, father of Barbara Gordon. He initially played the character in 2017 and 2021’s Justice League. Brendan Fraser, who currently plays Robotman/Cliff Steel on the DC HBO Max series Doom Patrol, joins the cast as the pyromaniacal villain Firefly.
Comic book movies and shows are getting weird. Marvel Studios just busted the multiverse wide open with Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Warner Bros. is set to do the same with Andy Muschietti’s The Flash which, after a long time in development, is set to hit theaters late next year. In that film, Ezra Miller’s Flash will also meet Keaton’s Batman, and reunite with Ben Affleck’s Batman.
Whether Keaton is donning the batsuit for Batgirl is yet unknown. At 70 years old, he’s at the perfect point to play a take on Bruce Wayne similar to the one we saw in the Batman Beyond animated series, which had an elderly Bruce Wayne guiding the young and inexperienced Terry McGinnis in a futuristic Gotham. Similarly, voice actor Kevin Conroy voiced Bruce Wayne and Batman in both Batman: The Animated Series and in Batman Beyond, so there’s precedent for this type of shift.
Batgirl is currently in production with Adil El Arbi and Bilal Fallah directing and Christina Hodson writing. Keaton will appear as Bruce Wayne next in The Flash on November 4, 2022.
