Not only will 2022 see Michael Keaton returning as Marvel villain The Vulture for Sony Pictures’ Morbius, but he’ll also be reprising his very first comic book movie role – that of Batman – in Warner Bros. and DC Films’ multiverse-spanning superhero adventure The Flash.
The DCEU movie will mark Keaton back under the cape and cowl for the first time since 1992’s Batman Returns, and speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the star has admitted that he always felt confident he could “nail that motherfucker” if he got the opportunity for another outing as the Dark Knight.
“Frankly, in the back of my head, I always thought, ‘I bet I could go back and nail that motherfucker. And so I thought, ‘Well, now that they’re asking me, let me see if I can pull that off,'” said Keaton. “What’s really interesting is how much more I got [Batman] when I went back and did him. I get this on a whole other level now. I totally respect it. I respect what people are trying to make. I never looked at it like, ‘Oh, this is just a silly thing.’ It was not a silly thing when I did Batman. But it has become a giant thing, culturally. It’s iconic. So I have even more respect for it because what do I know? This is a big deal in the world to people. You’ve got to honor that and be respectful of that. Even I go, ‘Jesus, this is huge.’”
SEE ALSO: Michael Keaton says returning as Batman for The Flash was “a little bit emotional”
However, just as he struggled to understand how Vulture has made the jump from the MCU to Sony’s Marvel universe for Morbius, Keaton also found The Flash’s multiverse concept a little confusing, adding that: “I had to read it more than three times to go, ‘Wait, how does this work?’ They had to explain that to me several times. By the way, I’m not being arrogant, I hope, about this. I don’t say it like, ‘I’m too groovy.’ I’m stupid. There’s a lot of things I don’t know about. And so, I don’t know, I just kind of figured it out, but this was different.”
The Flash will see the return of Ezra Miller as Barry Allen alongside Zack Snyder’s Justice League co-stars Ben Affleck as Batman and Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, while Batman and Batman Returns’ Michael Keaton also reprises the role of The Dark Knight. DCEU newcomers include Ron Livingston (Office Space) as Henry Allen, Maribel Verdu (Pan’s Labyrinth) as Nora Allen, and Sasha Calle (The Young and the Restless) as Supergirl.
The Flash is set for release on November 4th 2022.
