Batman Actor Michael Keaton "Didn't Care One Way or Another" About Batgirl Being Canceled: "Big, Fun, Nice Check"

"I want [directors Adil & Bilall] to succeed, and I think they felt very badly, and that made me feel bad. Me? I'm good."

By Cameron Bonomolo

Michael Keaton's Batman flies solo. Two years after Warner Bros. shockingly canceled the Batgirl movie from directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah — which would have seen Keaton reprise his iconic role as the Dark Knight opposite Leslie Grace's caped crusader following the events of The Flash — Keaton told GQ magazine he's unfazed by the fate of the shelved DC movie that studio brass deemed "not releasable." Warner Bros. Discovery took a tax write-off on the $90 million Batgirl, which was filmed and in post-production when the directing duo learned their movie was axed.

"No, I didn't care one way or another. Big, fun, nice check," Keaton said when asked if he's disappointed about what happened to Batgirl. "Rubbing his fingers together in the universal gesture for 'moolah,'" GQ noted the actor softened and added of the duo collectively known as Adil & Bilall: "I like those boys. They're nice guys. I pull for them. I want them to succeed, and I think they felt very badly, and that made me feel bad. Me? I'm good."

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(Photo:

Michael Keaton's Batman pictured in a scene from the shelved Batgirl movie.

- Warner Bros. Discovery)

The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star became "visibly agitated" by the line of Batman questioning, according to GQ, with the outlet noting the Oscar-nominated actor considers his role in 1989's Batman and 1992's Batman Returns no different than any other character he's played in his nearly 50-year career. "I'm nothing but only respectful and grateful, 100%," Keaton said of Batman. "And proud of it actually, because I like to prove everybody wrong. It's fun for me."

The Flash was supposed to position Keaton's Batman as a Nick Fury-type figure in the DC Extended Universe, but those plans fell through when the Andy Muschietti-directed feature flopped with a global box office of $271 million. Keaton shot a cameo in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom that was scrapped as DC Films — and the defunct DCEU — was reworked into DC Studios and the new DC Universe under the leadership of James Gunn and Peter Safran.

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The cancellation of Batgirl, which was described as "grounded" and "more like Tim Burton's Gotham City" from the two Keaton Batman movies, was "the biggest disappointment of our careers," Fallah said in a 2022 interview. "As a fanboy, just to be in the presence of Keaton as Batman, that's just a privilege and an honor. But it's a bittersweet feeling."

"We watched [The Flash] and we were sad," Arbi said. "We love director Andy Muschietti and his sister Barbara, who produced the movie. But when we watched it, we felt we could have been part of the whole thing. We didn't get the chance to show Batgirl to the world and let the audience judge for themselves. Because the audience really is our ultimate boss and should be the deciders of if something is good or bad, or if something should be seen or not."

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