Michael Keaton Returning as Batman in Another Movie Following 'The Flash' Appearance

Michael Keaton has already signed on to star in another DC Comics movie after filming his appearance in The Flash. Keaton will play Batman again in the HBO Max movie Batgirl. The Beetlejuice star first played Bruce Wayne in the 1989 Batman film and its sequel, 1993's Batman Returns.

Keaton will make his first appearance as Batman in 30 years in The Flash, which opens on Nov. 4, 2022. When his casting in that film was reported in June 2020, The Hollywood Reporter noted that Keaton's character could serve a role similar to Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Keaton's Batman could be a mentor for younger DC Comics characters, first for Ezra Miller's Barry Allen, and then for Leslie Grace's Barbara Gordon in Batgirl.

The Batgirl movie will be directed by Bad Boys For Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. It is already in production, with Grace (In The Heights) in the lead role. J.K. Simmons will play Commissioner Jim Gordon, after playing the part in Justice League. Brendan Fraser was cast as the villain Firefly. Although Warner Bros. and DC Comics didn't comment on Keaton's casting, Grace confirmed it on Twitter. "The bat's out [of] the bag," she tweeted.

Although Keaton once distanced himself from his connection to superhero movies, he told Variety this week that he had wondered what it would be like to play the Caped Crusader again. "'What would that be like?' or 'What if I had to do that again,'" Keaton remembered asking himself before he agreed to star in The Flash. "Just because I was curious didn't mean I wanted to do it. So it took a long time, frankly... I'm not just gonna say I'll do it. It has to be good. And there has to be a reason."

Warner Bros. and HBO Max have not set a release date for Batgirl. The studio still plans to only release the film on the streaming platform, although that could change. Blue Beetle, starring Cobra Kai's Xolo Mariduena, was also supposed to be an HBO Max exclusive title until Warner Bros. scheduled a theatrical release in August 2023. Birds of Prey star Jurnee Smollett is also starring in a Black Canary movie for HBO Max.

Keaton recently starred in the Hulu miniseries Dopesick, which is about the opioid addiction crisis. Earlier this year, he starred in the action movie The Protégé and had roles in the 2020 Netflix movies The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Worth. He played the Spider-Man villain Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming and is expected to appear in the role in Morbius. In 2015, he finally scored his first Oscar nomination for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), in which he played a former superhero movie actor trying to redefine himself.