Michael Keaton Says He's Not Seen An Entire Comic Book Movie Since First Batman
Michael Keaton has had a vast career, playing many iconic characters over the years, but he's [...]
Michael Keaton has had a vast career, playing many iconic characters over the years, but he's perhaps best known for playing Batman in Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns back in 1989 and 1992, a role he will soon be reprising in The Flash. Batman is not the only comic book character Keaton has played. The star was recently seen as Vulture in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man: Homecoming and is expected to reprise the role in Sony's Morbius. Despite Keaton's long history with the genre, he recently admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that he hasn't watched any comic book movies since his early days of playing Batman.
"What Tim [Burton] did changed everything," Keaton explained. "Everything you see now started with him. If you really think about what happened between 1989 and now, on a cultural, corporate, economic level, it's unbelievable." He added, "After the first Batman, I'm not sure I've ever seen an entire [comic book] movie ... I just never got around to it. So you're talking to a guy who wasn't in the zeitgeist of that whole world. When I went down to do the Marvel things in Atlanta … It's an entire city dedicated to Marvel … They'll be doing Marvel movies forever. I'll be dead, and they'll still be doing Marvel movies."
During the interview, Keaton also spoke about joining the DCEU
"I had to read it more than three times to go, 'Wait, how does this work?" Keaton said of the multiverse storyline in The Flash. "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.'"
The Flash is currently set for release on November 4, 2022.