Michael Keaton Reveals Reasons For His Batman Return in The Flash Movie

The Flash movie is currently in production with IT director Andy Muschietti at the helm and Ezra Miller returning to star in the titular role. There’s a lot of buzz surrounding the new film, especially when it comes to the return of both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton as their respective Batmen. Unlike Affleck, Keaton has already begun shooting the movie and recently said that “it was shockingly normal” to put back on the cowl. In another new chat with The Hollywood Reporter, the iconic actor revealed his reason for his return as Batman, which will mark his first time playing the character since 1992.

“Frankly, in the back of my head, I always thought, ‘I bet I could go back and nail that motherf*cker,’” Keaton says of Batman after revealing he loved The Flash script from Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson. “And so I thought, ‘Well, now that they’re asking me, let me see if I can pull that off.’”

“I had to read it more than three times to go, ‘Wait, how does this work?” Keaton added of the multiverse storyline. “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. 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.’”

Keaton previously seemed unsure if he’d have time to commit to The Flash movie.

“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 is currently set for release on November 4, 2022.