Diehard DC fans only got a glimmer of what a proper Michael Keaton/Batman return could’ve been in The Flash, and now we’re seeing just what we could’ve had.
During a newly released behind-the-scenes featurette, director Andy Muschietti revealed the depressing backstory of what led Keaton’s Batman to fully retire and live his life as a reclusive Bruce Wayne.
He recalls in The Flash featurette, “I really wanted to defy people’s expectations of where Bruce Wayne would be thirty years later, and I also wanted to deepen the backstory; if Bruce Wayne, as the story tells, has been retired for twenty-five years, what happened to him? I always said something should happen to Bruce Wayne to want to stop being Batman.”
As for the expectation-defying moment, the filmmaker says a horrible thing happens that brings Bruce back to his days before Batman, adding:
“And my idea was, he did something that goes against his code and killed a criminal in front of [the criminal’s] child—not knowingly, but he still did it. Which is an exact mirroring situation of what happened to him when his parents were killed in front of him [next to] Monarch Theaters, and that created the monster that The Batman is.
“So he just couldn’t cope with it, and that’s why he decided to shut off his other side, Batman. And he hasn’t been able to forgive himself. And now, the way we find him is a bit of, like, the evolution of that journey. You know, he’s a tragic figure. He’s basically a character that is in search of redemption but eventually finds a way to do it by helping Barry.”
Check out the full video here…
Worlds collide in “The Flash” when Barry uses his superpowers to travel back in time in order to change the events of the past. But when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, Barry becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod has returned, threatening annihilation, and there are no Super Heroes to turn to. That is, unless Barry can coax a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian… albeit not the one he’s looking for. Ultimately, to save the world that he is in and return to the future that he knows, Barry’s only hope is to race for his life. But will making the ultimate sacrifice be enough to reset the universe?
The Flash is directed by Andy Muschietti (It) and stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash alongside Kiersey Clemons (Iris West), Ben Affleck (Batman), Michael Keaton (Batman), Sasha Calle (Supergirl), Michael Shannon (General Zod), Antje Traue (Faora-Ul), Kiersey Clemons (Iris West), Ron Livingston (Henry Allen), and Maribel Verdu (Nora Allen).
