James Gunn Teases Future for Michael Keaton's Batman

On Tuesday, DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Pater Safran introduced the first projects in their rebooted shared cinematic universe, but does Micahel Keaton's Batman have a place in it? Keaton had been expected to reprise his role as the Caped Crusader (which he first played in 1989's Batman and its sequel, Batman Returns) in The Flash, Batgirl, and possibly beyond. But with The Flash expected to relaunch the entire DC cinematic universe, and Batgirl shelved, his future is now unclear. As far as Keaton's possible return, Safran teased to the press, "There's always possibilities." Gunn expanded on that, noting that "We are a multiverse still."

Gunn continues, "But the main thing that we're focusing on right now is creating the universe that people put their feet into. And then out of that, if we want to have Multiverse Tales, which I actually know one of the things we're working on does have a Multiverse Tale, is we'll have that in there."

On Warner Bros. canceling the Batgirl movie

Safran also commented on the Batgirl movie's cancellation, defending the decision. "Batgirl's a character that inevitably we will include in our story," he explained. "On the Batgirl front, it's not about late in the process of the film getting canceled. I saw the movie, and there are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable, and it happens sometimes. That film was not releasable. I actually think that [president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved."

He continued, "I think that they really stood up to support DC. The characters, the story, the quality of all of that. I spoke to Adil [El Arbi] and Bilall [Fallah] — the directors — last week, we were chatting. We'd love to be in business with all those folks. Christina Hodson wrote it. Some people are already back in business with us. As I said, a lot of talented people were involved, but the film just was not releasable. It would not have been able to compete in the theatrical marketplace; it was built for the small screen. So, again, I think it was not an easy decision, but they made the right decision by shelving it."

Gunn and Safran will introduce their new cinematic Batman, and begin to build out the Batman family, in The Brave and the Bold. The film will feature Batman and his son, Damian Wayne, who takes up the Robin mantle. Meanwhile, Robert Pattinson will continue his tenure as the Dark Knight in The Batman's sequel, set for 2025 under the new DC Elseworlds banner.