The Flash: First Look at Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne

The Flash set photos are giving fans their first look at Michael Keaton‘s return as Bruce Wayne. While director Andy Muschietti teased Keaton’s Batman costume with his own photo on social media, a new fan photo shows Keaton back as Bruce Wayne, reprising his role from 1989’s Batman movie and its sequel, Batman Returns. Keaton will be playing the older Bruce Wayne from an alternate timeline in the film, which draws inspiration from DC Comics’ 2011 Flash-centric, timeline-rewriting crossover event titled Flashpoint. Keaton stars opposite Ezra Miller as Barry Allen, a.k.a. The Flash, and Ben Affleck as the Bruce Wayne of Barry’s timeline.

“[Ben Affleck’s Batman] ‘s the baseline. He’s part of that unaltered state before we jump into Barry’s adventure. There’s a familiarity there,” Muschietti explained in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2020. “This movie is a bit of a hinge in the sense that it presents a story that implies a unified universe where all the cinematic iterations that we’ve seen before are valid. It’s inclusive in the sense that it is saying all that you’ve seen exists, and everything that you will see exists, in the same unified multiverse.”

Keaton previously seemed unsure if he’d have time to commit to The Flash movie. His role was confirmed when the film entered production.

“I am needing a minute to think about it because I’m so fortunate and blessed, I got so much going on now. I’m really into work right now. I don’t know why, but I am, and so, yeah, I mean, you know, to tell you the truth, somewhere on my iPad is an iteration of the whole Flash thing that I haven’t had time yet… I called them and said, I have to be honest with you. I can’t look at anything right now,” Keaton told Deadline. “I’m so deep into this thing I’m doing [Hulu series Dopesick]. Also, I’m prepping a thing I’m producing and getting ready to do down the road in the fall that I’ll be in, and I feel responsible to that.”

The Flash movie also stars Sasha Calle as Supergirl, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen, and Ron Livingston as Henry Allen. The movie is poised to introduce the multiverse and rewrite the DC Extended Universe’s timeline, throwing the doors open for all of the DC films that follow.

“What captivated me about The Flash is the human drama in it,” Muschietti said previously. “The human feelings and emotions that play in the drama [of it]. It’s going to be fun, too. I can’t promise that there will be any horror [elements in it], really, but it’s a beautiful human story.”

What do you think? Let us know in the comments. The Flash movie opens in theaters on November 4, 2022.