Michael Keaton may be promoting the release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice now, but he can never seem to escape any questions about playing Batman.
What’s funny is, some footage of Keaton on Letterman has resurfaced, and it sees him actually spoiling the 1989 movie in the interview... before the movie was released.
Michael Keaton Reacts to Footage of Him Spoiling Batman
In an interview with CinemaBlend, Keaton was shown a clip of him back in the 80s promoting the release of the first Batman movie, to which he spoils the plot point that Joker was the one who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents.
The interview with Letterman went:
Keaton: “Bruce Wayne witnesses the murder of his parents when he was a kid…”
Letterman: “And the Joker had done that?”
Keaton: “Yeah, but he doesn’t know it till later—Oh, I’m kind of blowing the plot here."
In Keaton’s defense, he thought that everyone already knew who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents, but any comic book reader knows that the identity of the Wayne's murderer is Joe Chill—a common petty thief.
It’s also worth noting that the spoiler really came from Letterman who had asked the question, to which Keaton kind of just confirmed his statement. He’s even the one who realizes that he just spoiled the film, but he still managed to have a laugh about how nobody was going to see it (which everyone still did).
"I’m Batman"
Keaton had recently reprised the role of his Batman for The Flash last year, and he was kind of expected to stick around for longer before James Gunn and Peter Safran took over for the DCU.
It was said that the movie was supposed to end with Keaton being established as the new Batman of the DCEU replacing Ben Affleck, and he was also supposed to make an appearance in the Batgirl solo movie on Max before it was famously shelved for “tax purposes”.
It did seem that Keaton was set for a Hugh Jackman-level comeback as Batman, but after Gunn took over and plans were scrapped, it seems that his time as the Dark Knight is over (again).
Who knows, maybe Gunn has some kind of plan with the DC multiverse going down the line, but seeing as how Marvel is building up to it, it does seem that multiverse stories are starting to get to audiences—and not in the best way.
The Batman of the DCU
Though Keaton’s Batman may not have a future that’s been laid out, the Dark Knight still has a lot more appearances planned down the line. For one, Matt Reeves’ The Batman timeline is still pushing forward, and the sequel is expected to start shooting next year.
Besides that, Gunn has also announced a Batman project titled Brave and the Bold from Flash director Andy Muschietti. The story is said to focus on a Bruce Wayne who discovers that he has a feral ninja son in the form of Damian Wayne who he takes up as his sidekick Robin.
Not much is known about the story, but the movie is expected to have an established Bat-family running around and fighting crime.
Hopefully, Gunn’s Superman movie hints at what to expect. Watch out for it when it comes to cinemas on July 11, 2025.
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