Michael Keaton stars as an older Bruce Wayne in a striking new Batman Beyond fan poster. Even though it originally ran on The WB under their Kids WB banner, Batman Beyond was relatively dark animated fare, as it depicted an old and reclusive Bruce Wayne living in a futuristic Gotham City and taking on a protégé in justice-loving teenager Terry McGinnis.
Though the actual Batman Beyond show ran for just three seasons and 52 episodes, the world it created came back both in later DC animated shows like Justice League Unlimited, Static Shock and The Zeta Project, and in a comic book run that began in 2011. 2000 also saw the release of the direct-to-video film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Around the same time, Warner Bros. reportedly began developing a Batman Beyond live-action movie with Clint Eastwood sought to play the aged Bruce Wayne, but the project was later canceled. Rumors of another animated film from WB began making the rounds in 2019, though they were ultimately shot down. Now talk of a live-action Batman Beyond is building up steam again after reports that Keaton is set to return as the Caped Crusader in the multiverse movie The Flash (later talk that Keaton would play the DCEU’s Batman in further films turned out to be mere speculation built on top of a misreading of a tweet).
A Batman Beyond movie with Keaton as the old and broken Bruce Wayne from the animated show and comics may be no closer to reality now than it ever was, but fan enthusiasm for the idea is only growing, and artist BossLogic has dutifully taken the notion and run with it by crafting an appropriate poster featuring Keaton as Wayne and Dylan O’Brien as Terry McGinnis. See the art in the space below:
Keaton of course first became Batman in 1989’s movie from Tim Burton, the film that launched the era of the modern blockbuster superhero film. Keaton returned as Wayne for the first sequel, 1992’s Batman Returns, before handing the torch to Val Kilmer for 1995’s Batman Forever. Though Keaton left Batman behind, Batman never quite left him, and indeed he drew upon his real life experience as an actor known for playing a superhero in his Oscar nominated performance in 2015’s Birdman. Keaton later returned to the superhero realm as the villain Vulture in the Marvel movie Spider-Man: Homecoming. When Keaton again dons Batman’s cowl in The Flash, he’ll be joined by Ben Affleck as another version of the Caped Crusader, as the DCEU embraces the multiverse concept.
Thus far DC and Warner Bros. have revealed no plans for Keaton’s Batman beyond The Flash, despite the major story that circulated claiming Keaton would be Batman in other DCEU films. Having witnessed the surge of interest in Keaton in Batman Beyond however, perhaps keeping Keaton in the fold is something that DC and WB should look into. Of course, there’s no guarantee Keaton himself is interested in playing Batman again, even in an intriguing project like Batman Beyond. The actor seemed to have purged Batman from his soul with his performance in Birdman, and his return in The Flash feels more like a one-off lark than a re-commitment to the character. Obviously, Affleck is also on the table as a potential older Bruce Wayne if the Batman Beyond concept ever does make it to the big screen in live-action form. And Eastwood is still around too.
Source: BossLogic/Twitter
