Michael Keaton In Talks To Play Batman Again (A DCEU Multiverse??)

News recently broke that Michael Keaton is in early talks to reprise his role as Batman in the upcoming Flash movie (2022). This fits perfectly with the word going around that the movie will be based on the Flashpoint story in which Flash reset the DCU continuity after first garbling it up and causing some crazy alternate reality stuff to happen.

Talks with Keaton involve him signing on for multiple movie appearances, playing a mentor role similar to Nick Fury in the MCU.

Geoff Johns, who years ago had a stronger hand in DC TV/Film properties than I think he does now, once said that they are seeing their properties in terms of a multiverse, where multiple versions of characters can exist simultaneously. That seems to be graduating from mere head-canon (or budget fan service limited to the CW shows) to potential big screen reality, and speculation has begun about how this could open the door to cameos from all kinds of past iterations of characters.

Personally, as long as the "core" DCEU is appealing to me, I'm totally open to them wrapping arms around past iterations (as cameos or otherwise re-invigorated retakes on those versions). And in one fell swoop, it would be a little bit like them retroactively being the first shared cinematic universe. Yes, a major cheat to call it that, but still cool in its own way and very distinct from what Marvel has done.

What do you guys think of this?

Here's the IGN article

I posted about this last night on the "Snyder Cut" thread. LOL
But you've found more details than I did. Specifically the idea of Keaton having multiple appearances and being a Fury-type character.
I'm not so sure about that. A cameo in Flashpoint, sure. But Taking him further than that? I don't think the 1989 Batman is the right character for that.

I dunno.

When I first saw Man of Steel, all I wanted was more Henry Cavill Superman movies.
But BVS and wonder Woman delighted me, so I was totally up for a shared universe.

But the whole thing has been messed up and interfeared with so many times, it just feels irrevocably broken to me. The idea of trying to use Flashpoint to make actual in-continuity changes just feels like it will further muddy the water at this point.
I just can't get past the removal of Ben Affleck's Batman. I know it was his choice, and I totally respect that it was unheathly for him personally. Some things are more important than movies, so no ill will toward him.
But if it were me, I'd have just re-cast a new actor to play the same Batman. It seems that they're completely gutting the whole concept of Batman, recasting all the characters. Changing the character's age. It's just all too much for me.
I'm out.

Also, I agree with what some others have said. You don't start with Flashpoint. Let's build up the character a little before we go there. I think they're doing this story for all the wrong reasons.
I think what it comes down to is I just don't like the way comic books do multiverses. How they combine disparate alternate interpretations of the stories. It's too much of an intrusion of the real world.

I'll continue to watch DC movies, and hopefully really enjoy some of them, but the DCEU I loved is dead. I can't see anything much rising out of those ashes.
I'll take the Snyder Cut as the ending I never thought I'd get and be grateful.

AdamCollings wrote:
Also, I agree with what some others have said. You don't start with Flashpoint. Let's build up the character a little before we go there.

I'm definitely leaning in your direction with this. It seems like an odd starting point for a Flash film franchise. But I'm not ready to say it can't work well. For me it will all be about the execution.

For example, there are some comic book stories that re-invigorate a character who has been around for awhile, and though carrying continuity baggage, they only carry it enough to help old fans transition. To new readers, if handled well, it just feels like implied background lore. (Like when Laurie and Dan talk about an incident between Rorschach and Dollar Bill in the original Watchmen story, or when characters name-drop past events that only hardcore readers will have read.)

An example to me would be Green Lantern Rebirth, which I recommended to someone who had never read a single comic. They thought it was a great read, even though it had to clean up messes like Hal as the Spectre and Guy Gardner's Vuldarian genetics. If the core character motives are working, the continuity details are just decoration implying a rich world history.

With Flashpoint being so much about the murder of Barry's mom, which is central to his personal motives as a crimefighter (first in the lab and then in costume), I can see it working really well in a modified form to introduce the character to new audiences. And DC characters are well-known enough among movie-goers (we are long past the 90's era of "only geeks know who Green Lantern is") that I even think they could play with alternate versions of them.

Don't get me wrong. I would have them do the Wonder Woman movie thing, where the core story is a flashback origin tale(about him being struck by lightning and just featuring one good villain and few to no cameos) bookended by a reminiscing present-day Barry. But I can see them still using Flashbacks (or even Time Travel!) to show us Barry's Flash origin while still covering the other Flashpoint elements. The question in my mind is whether or not there is room in a story like that to develop a worthwhile relationship with Iris West. I kinda hope she is left out or barely in it in favor of time spent on the Barry-dad relationship.

So a lot could go wrong and fall flat, no question. But I can definitely see a scenario where it works really well for me.