Reports suggest Michael Keaton's Batman is set to make his return to the DCEU with Andrés Muschietti's Justice League and its tale of two directors, The Flash has been the most difficult DC project to get into production due to a slew of behind-the-scenes issues. The film has gone through numerous potential directors and screenwriters, including Chris Lord and Phil Miller, Rick Famuyiwa, and John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, all as a result of conflicting interests on the film's story directions and vision. Finally, in July 2019, Andrés Muschietti of It fame agreed to direct the film, this time with a release date of June 3, 2022.
Early reports on the direction of the script indicated that the DC Comics reboot storyline Flashpoint would be a heavy inspiration for the film. Adapted several times before, most notably in season 3 of The Flash, as well as the animated film The Flashpoint Paradox, the iconic Crisis-adjacent event sees Barry Allen travel back in time to save his mother from being murdered, only to wreak unfathomable damage on the timeline. In the comics, these damaging changes include a war between the Atlanteans and the Amazons, a world in which Superman is caught and experimented on by the US government, and arguably the most well-known change, a timeline in which Bruce Wayne is murdered, resulting in his father Thomas Wayne becoming a lethal version of Batman.
While fans can expect to see some form of timeline trickery in The Flash, Muschietti promised earlier this year that the film would be a remix of the famous comic book storyline, not a full adaptation. Fans were understandably confused by his statement, but now reports suggest that Michael Keaton, who played the Dark Knight in Tim Burton's first two Batman films, may be reprising his role as Bruce Wayne's Batman in The Flash. Not only is this a major change from the source material, but it's also a huge shakeup within the composition of the DCEU - one that implies more massive changes to follow.
The DCEU Is Setting Up The Multiverse
The idea of the Multiverse is not a foreign one to comic book fans, especially fans of characters from the Big Two. Both Marvel and DC continually reinforce the idea of a sprawling Multiverse, in which infinite versions of classic heroes live and thrive. But unlike Marvel, who usually only plays around in the Multiverse toolbox on rare occasions, the concept is baked into the very DNA of the DC Universe. Storylines such as 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths and 2005's Infinite Crisis truly emphasized the importance of the idea, and now DC has run with it, with popular story arcs and even new villains such as The Batman Who Laughs arising from it. With the Arrowverse, DC decided to bring the Multiverse concept to the small-screen with the highly-anticipated live-action adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Now the DCEU seems to be doing it themselves, something that sets them apart from their competition at the MCU. While Marvel prefers to weave their stories together as tightly as possible, in service of a long-running and cohesive continuity, it seems as if the Joker, so it's refreshing to see DC properly double down on this approach.
Non-Canon DC Stories Can Still Connect
This approach has another intended effect: it legitimizes everyone's favorite on-screen interpretation of these characters. DC hasn't shied away from giving fans and audiences multiple different depictions of the same characters; sometimes even years apart from each other. For everyone who enjoyed Arthur Fleck's Joker, there are people who equally enjoyed Jared Leto's. For everyone who appreciated Ben Affleck's ruthless and wayward Caped Crusader, there are scores of people looking forward to Robert Pattinson's. There are even two different Barry Allens running around the live-action timeline currently, a fact which DC and The CW decided to both celebrate and poke fun at by having the two versions meet each other at the end of The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths.
This is a wonderful celebration of the fluctuating nature of comic book canon and live-action adaptations. Fans of different reboots and timelines don't have to argue over which one is canon or which one is better; DC instead wants to legitimize them all and make them equally important. Nobody ever thought Michael Keaton would return as Batman, but now he just might, showcasing that DC values their cinematic legacy on all fronts. With this news, coupled with the kinds of meta, multi-dimensional escapades the DC Universe is known for, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Brandon Routh's Superman again in the future, or even hints at Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight.
Michael Keaton's Batman Can Become DC's Nick Fury
In a more direct, tangible sense, the re-introduction of Michael Keaton's Batman can give audiences something to tether onto between films. The MCU was built from the ground up by a combination of individual solo origin films, as well as the connective tissue of S.H.I.E.L.D and Nick Fury behind-the-scenes. While most diehard DCEU fans acknowledge that the DCEU doesn't have to follow in the footsteps of the MCU to be successful, having a connective bridge between films would be a brilliant way to bring in fans of one property who might not be interested in another. This is similar to what DC wants to do with Henry Cavill's Superman; having him appear in cameos and ing roles in other movies in order to boost interest and draw to other properties.
There are also current reports of Keaton's Batman appearing in a Batgirl solo film, something that implies that his character might be taking on a mentor-like role to other characters in the DCEU. While information on Chris McKay's live-action Nightwing film has slowed to a crawl, there's a possibility that Keaton could cameo in that as well, centering any Batfamily-related films on a potential connection to Michael Keaton's aging Batman. While there's no way of knowing how it'll play out just yet, DC re-introducing Michael Keaton's Batman in The Flash is a creative decision that shows the DCEU is unafraid of embracing a unique and unorthodox artistic vision.
