The Flash Director Shares Behind the Scenes Details of Michael Keaton's Emotional Batman Return

By Adam Barnhardt

After a 30-year hiatus, Michael Keaton has returned as Batman. The Oscar-nominated actor appears as the Caped Crusader in DC's The Flash, a movie that dives head-first into the idea of a storytelling multiverse. As Flash helmer Andy Muschietti now recalls, Keaton started to get emotional on his first day back on set after such an extended break.

"The first scene that we shoot, where he's wearing the full suit, he's like, 'Can you take a picture? It's for my grandson,' Muschietti said in an extended chat with Vanity Fair. "It filled me with [shivers]...I have goosebumps right now."

The filmmaker went on to point out Douglas' son Sean was a little kid when he last played Batman, so getting to share that moment with his family was paramount.

"He's a guy who doesn't show his emotions a lot, but you could tell," Muschietti continued. "We built the entire Batcave on one of the biggest sets at Leavesden Studios, which is the Warner Bros stages in London. Except for the full waterfall that goes down, it's all entirely practical. And when Keaton arrived to the set, the Batcave was already finished, and it was lit and everything."

He added, "He stayed like this for a while. I didn't want to interrupt him or anything, I just wanted for him to take it in," the director said. "Who knows what was going on there, but something was going on there."

Keaton was always at the top of Muschietti's radar, previously revealing to ComicBook.com that there was no backup plan in place should the star have said no to a return.

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"There was no Plan B," he began. "Yeah, it was a continuation in the sense that the world where we find Michael Keaton is the same universe where he was in his adventures in the Tim Burton movies. It's just, you know, we have to take some licenses. Some creative licenses to replicate some of the things that are designed. Make things evolve because I wanted Batman to have kept being Batman for a few more years after we saw him for the last time. 

The Flash has officially raced into theaters. Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) ventures to the past to change history, resulting in massive repercussions for the future. Forced to team up with another version of Barry, the mysterious Kryptonian known as Supergirl (Sasha Calle), and the iconic Batman (Michael Keaton), the Scarlet Speedster is forced to reckon with his mistakes and save a doomed reality. The Flash is directed by Andy Muschietti, written by Christina Hodson from a story by Joby Harold, and produced by Barbara Muschietti.

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