Michael Keaton’s Julian Assange Channels Batman in ‘SNL’ Sketch

Michael Keaton made a surprise appearance tonight on Saturday Night Live, playing the recently-arrested leader of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. Incarcerated in a jail cell along the likes of Kate McKinnon’s Lori Loughlin, Keaton’s Assange character was sure to drop a reference to the actor’s first appearance in Batman.

As the character is explaining his plans on blowing up the moon, he drops Keaton’s iconic “You wanna get nuts?” line from Batman (1989). In total, Keaton played the Caped Crusader twice, before leaving the franchise before the third film, eventually being replaced by Val Kilmer. The actor previously explained the reason he left the franchise was because of a sub-par script.

“[The film] just wasn’t any good, man. I tried to be patient, but after a certain point, I was like, ‘I can’t take this any more, this is going to be horrible,’” Keaton explained. “There was some really horrible taste in the ’90s, and I probably contributed to that, unfortunately. It was a time of nouveau riche excess – everyone was known for their jets and their stuff. And I thought, I’m in this job for the long run, I don’t want this. And the truth is, I’m not boasting, but I was correct. There are a whole load of people who ran things that are long gone.”

Shazam! is now in theaters. Other upcoming DC films include Joker on October 4th, Birds of Prey on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, and The Batman on June 25, 2021, and The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021.

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