So Is Michael Keaton Replacing Ben Affleck as Batman or Not?

DC is really into the idea of parallel realities, and they have been for a long time; while Marvel has gotten a lot of multiverse attention because of the success of Into the Spider-Verse, The Flash has been hanging out with alternate versions of himself since 1961.

DC is really leaning into the multiverse idea, presumably because it allows them to have The Flash and other characters in movies and on TV without “confusing the audience,” long the reason they’ve given for keeping Superman, Batman and other big characters off of television.

It also lets DC do  ore projects like Joker that aren’t related to any other films and still have characters like The Joker show up in Batman films.

And of course, there’s also the fan service, like having Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck and Robert Pattinson all playing Batman in the same movie.

You can also have multiple Batman film franchises, which is what DC Films president Walter Hamada told the New York Times was the plan, and Brooks Barnes, the reporter who interviewed him, said that those two Batmen were Robert Pattinson and Michael Keaton.

Keaton

— Brooks Barnes (@brooksbarnesNYT) January 2, 2021

Pretty cut and dried, right? Michael Keaton is back as the main Batman in the DCEU, right?

Well, don’t get ahead of yourself. Barnes told CNN that despite rumors to the contrary, Keaton has only signed up to play Batman in The Flash.

“Been offline (moving apartments) and return to see this Michael Keaton craziness,” he wrote. “I was referring to the *one film* that Keaton has been announced as being in, not a set of his own Batman films. If I had info on him beyond ‘The Flash,” I would have obviously put it in my article.”

Ben Affleck is also playing Batman in the movie, and I believe if they continue to make films in that Zack Snyder Justice League reality it’s going to be Ben Affleck playing Batman in them.

Now, would it be cool if 69-year-old Michael Keaton showed up to play a 55-year-old grizzled and world-weary Batman in his twilight days in an adaptation of Frank Miller’s classic The Dark Knight Returns? Yes, I’ve never wanted anything more in my life. But it’s not happening yet, you just misread a tweet and jumped to some incorrect conclusions.

Seriously, how cool would a Keaton Dark Knight Returns be, though?