James Gunn Teases Michael Keaton’s Batman DCU Future

James Gunn made a load of announcements yesterday, all relating to the upcoming DC slate of movies and TV shows, but one thing we still didn’t really know was what was going on with Michael Keaton’s Batman. That’s been a question that we’ve been trying to answer for quite some time now, and we still don’t have a solid answer for you just yet.

We do know that Keaton will be turning up in The Flash movie, but after that, the future is not so clear. During his DC slate announcement video, Gunn did reveal that The Flash movie is incredible and it’ll still be released in cinemas.

Gunn also revealed that another Batman movie was in the works. It would introduce the DCU’s version of the Dark Knight and would be a take on the Batman story, The Brave And The Bold. But, what about Keaton’s Batman? What’s happening with him?

What’s happening with Michael Keaton’s version of Batman in the DCU?

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

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As far as Keaton’s possible return, Safran teased to the press (via ComicBook.com), “There’s always possibilities.” Gunn expanded on that, noting that “We are a multiverse still.” Gunn then added:

But the main thing that we’re focusing on right now is creating the universe that people put their feet into. And then out of that, if we want to have Multiverse Tales, which I actually know one of the things we’re working on does have a Multiverse Tale, is we’ll have that in there.

So, it sounds as though there might be plans over at DC Studios to expand the DC Universe via the Multiverse. That’s already happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and we know that The Flash movie is going to see the speedster explore DC’s Multiverse.

 Could Keaton return to the DCU via the Multiverse?

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One movie that Keaton was going to star in as Batman was the now-cancelled Batgirl movie. During the recent press conference, DC Studios’ co-CEO, Safran, commented on the Batgirl movie’s cancellation, defending the decision. Here’s what he had to say on the matter:

Batgirl’s a character that inevitably we will include in our story. On the Batgirl front, it’s not about late in the process of the film getting cancelled. I saw the movie, and there are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable, and it happens sometimes. That film was not releasable. I actually think that [president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved.

He continued:

I think that they really stood up to support DC. The characters, the story, the quality of all of that. I spoke to Adil [El Arbi] and Bilall [Fallah] — the directors — last week, we were chatting. We’d love to be in business with all those folks. Christina Hodson wrote it. Some people are already back in business with us. As I said, a lot of talented people were involved, but the film just was not releasable. It would not have been able to compete in the theatrical marketplace; it was built for the small screen. So, again, I think it was not an easy decision, but they made the right decision by shelving it.

What do you make of this news? Are you hopeful that Michael Keaton would be returning as Batman in the DCU after The Flash movie is released in cinemas? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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