Michael Keaton its it took him some time to understand Ezra Miller will once again speed onto the big screen as Barry Allen, aka the Flash, for the movie, which will arrive in theaters in November 2022. Directed by Andy Muschietti, The Flash will explore the DCEU's version of Flashpoint, a storyline from the comics that sees Barry go back in time to stop his mother's murder, only to then unleash drastic consequences on the timeline.
The Flash will explore the DC multiverse in a big way, and it will do that through the inclusion of additional heroes. Sasha Calle will make her franchise debut as Supergirl, while Ben Affleck will return to play Batman. He won't be The Flash's only Caped Crusader, though, as Keaton will also play Batman for the movie. Keaton hasn't portrayed the character since 1992's Batman Returns, yet his performance remains one of the definitive iterations of the hero.
It's the multiverse that makes Keaton's return possible, yet the actor had a hard time wrapping his head around it. In a new profile with THR, Keaton itted he needed a few read-throughs and explanations to truly grasp how The Flash's story works. He also rejected the idea that this is him trying to be too cool to understand a superhero movie. Keaton said:
“I had to read it more than three times to go, ‘Wait, how does this work?’ They had to explain that to me several times. By the way, I’m not being arrogant, I hope, about this. I don’t say it like, ‘I’m too groovy.’ I’m stupid. There’s a lot of things I don’t know about. And so, I don’t know, I just kind of figured it out, but this was different.”
Keaton's return as Batman in The Flash is perhaps the most eagerly anticipated part of the movie. Set photos have showed glimpses of him on set, and Keaton himself has spoken highly of the way The Flash introduces Batman. He's expected to play a sort of mentor role for Barry, and it isn't yet clear if he will share the screen with Affleck's Batman. At the same time, when Keaton's return was announced last year, it was said he could appear in additional DC movies after The Flash.
The DCEU isn't the only superhero universe that's delving into the multiverse, as the MCU is dipping its toes into the complex concept as well. It remains to be seen exactly how The Flash will introduce it, but it likely has something to do with Barry's time-traveling adventures. The mixture of the multiverse and time travel sounds like an ambitious plot, so it's no wonder that Keaton would feel a bit overwhelmed when reading it for the first time. Fortunately, it sounds like he's on board now. The Flash will bring massive changes to the DCEU, and audiences can't wait to see them all unfold.
Source: THR
