DC fans have seen their hopes for a Batman Beyond movie reignited, thanks to the news that Michael Keaton is reprising his role as Batman/Bruce Wayne in the upcoming Flash movie. Fans are hoping that having Keaton play an elderly Batman will set the stage for a Batman Beyond movie to be made after The Flash, leaving just one big question to answer: who would be playing Bruce Wayne’s successor, Terry McGinnis? Well, this new Batman Beyond fan-made trailer takes footage of The Maze Runner and American Assassin star Dylan O’Brien, and turns him into the Batman Beyond fans have been hoping for!
Videos by ComicBook.com
Watching the video, you will surely recognize any number of iconic scenes from a hodge-podge of famous geek films. TRON: Legacy gets a major showcase at the start, with Garret Hedlund’s Sam Flynn serving as a good double for Terry McGinnis venturing into Wayne Manor and finding the Batcave. Of course, that sequence wouldn’t be complete without a shot of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Edward “Robin” Blake from the final scene of The Dark Knight Rises. Blade Runner 2040 helps create the world of futuristic Gotham City – there’s even a previous Batman Beyond fan-film mixed in there. All in all, the approach and tone of the trailer is something that would actually make for a good Batman Beyond movie teaser.
The easy part of this little fan-trailer is that Dylan O’Brien actually worked with Michael Keaton on American Assassin. That film (based on the Vince Flynn book series) saw O’Brien play a kid (Mitch Rapp) scarred by a terrible loss during a terrorist attack. He trains to become a vigilante terrorist hunter, but ends up instead being recruited into a CIA black-ops unit run by Michael Keaton’s Stan Hurley. In many ways, American Assassin is a perfect audition video for why the Dylan O’Brien Terry McGinnis would have great chemistry with Keaton’s Batman, onscreen.
During a recent episode of the ComicBook Nation podcast, we discussed in depth why NOW is the time for DC to move on a Batman Beyond movie:
“There are two things [DC] could beat Marvel to right now… the kind of multiverse Crisis – that whole thing that Marvel eventually does have to fix, but it’s gonna take like 12 years. DC can get it done now, the future characters, right? Marvel’s not really getting into these future characters yet. You don’t have like a Spider-Man 2099 movie or something like that. So you can do Batman Beyond and start to get that ball rolling and get the future stuff going.”
The casting of Terry McGinnins is the biggest concern fans have for a Batman Beyond movie right now – what would you think of Dylan O’Brien taking the role? Let us know in the comments!
