The cancelation of the planned Batman Beyond movie is a byproduct of the DCU's long recovery from 2017's Justice League. The version of Justice League that hit theaters in 2017 was an infamous creation that included extensive reshoots which were conducted after Zack Snyder departed the movie. Eventually, calls for Snyder's original cut of the movie led to Zack Snyder's Justice League debuting in 2021 to a stronger reception. Despite this, the Justice League reshoots continue to hover over the entire DCU, from reports of abusive behavior by Joss Whedon to just how much the reshoots ended up costing the DCU.
The DCEU ultimately took five years to recover after Justice League, while the aftershocks of its negative impact have included the uexpected cancelation of Batgirl. Additionally, following the formation of DC Studios, news has also broken of a Michael Keaton-led Batman Beyond movie also being scrapped. Like Batgirl, the reasons behind Batman Beyond being greenlit explain a lot about its unfortunate cancelation.
Batman Beyond Was Another Attempt To Fix The DCEU After Justice League
After Justice League's failure, among the many damaging effects it had upon the DCU was the lack of an in-universe Batman due to Ben Affleck's departure from the role. Matt Reeves's The Batman did keep the Dark Knight as a prominent franchise for Warner Bros., but the movie being outside the DCU left WB in a tough situation. Eventually, WB began playing up the idea of the DC multiverse, enabling multiple versions of the same characters to co-exist, and paving the way for Michael Keaton's return in The Flash's multiverse adventure.
Unfortunately, WB themselves appear to have seen the multiverse as a way to "fix" the damage wrought by Justice League, with Keaton's second appearance in Batgirl taking place in a "spaghetti of Multiverses" per co-director Adil El Arbi. The situation also grew even more complex with Affleck returning as his version of Batman in not only The Flash but also Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Ultimately, WB-Discovery and DC Studios seem to have determined that Batgirl and Batman Beyond had become entangled in an increasingly incomprehensible multiverse spider-web, leading to the plug being pulled on both.
Batman Beyond Needed To Be Its Own Thing (Like Batgirl)
Both Batgirl and Batman Beyond were being tasked with responsibilities to the DCU that were completely unfair to them. Had Batgirl simply been the next chapter in the DCU, it would not have fallen victim to Warner Brothers' efforts to fix past mistakes with the multiverse. Batman Beyond had the same problem through no fault of its own. Furthermore, by bringing Terry McGinnis into play, it is evident that Warner Bros. saw him and Keaton's older Bruce Wayne as compensating for the lack of an active DCU Batman.
Instead, this simply pushed solving that problem off to the movie's cast and crew, and was lessening Batman Beyond's ability to tell its own story. Keaton's involvement in both Batgirl and Batman Beyond also indicates that the futuristic elements of the latter were being jettisoned for a present day setting, which was robbing Batman Beyond of half of its core concept. All of these problems could have been avoided by WB properly invoking the idea of the multiverse and setting Batman Beyond in Keaton's Batman universe.
A Michael Keaton Batman Beyond Movie Should Still Happen
Despite the cancelation of Batman Beyond, as it was originally conceived, the potential of Michael Keaton's version of Batman mentoring Terry McGinnis is obvious and a role Keaton is perfectly suited to embody. With DC Studios up and running, Batman Beyond with Michael Keaton is just a great an idea as ever. Simply removing the burdens Batman Beyond was saddled with and reworking it to be truer to the show's actual premise would be a fairly quick fix to get Batman Beyond off the ground. Keaton's universe also offers a lot of potential for a whole new spin on Batman Beyond through Tim Burton's German expressionist re-imaging of Gotham City.
The mistake WB's previous management made was thinking that a novel concept like Batman Beyond could be easily shoehorned into an already ongoing cinematic universe. Unfortunately, that thought process along with WB's recalcitrance towards Zack Snyder's Justice League (including which version of Justice League is canon to the DCU) shows how flawed their post-Justice League clean-up process was. It would be a shame indeed for Batman Beyond to remain on ice because of that. With the new management of DC Studios forming a DC Bible, it could hopefully open the door for Batman Beyond to be realized with the story it began with being its first priority.
