Michael Keaton's return as Batman in The Flash, 31 years after his last portrayal, effectively fractured the already inconsistent continuity of the Batman films from the late 80s and 90s, directed by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher, causing significant changes to the established narrative.
Michael Keaton returned to the role of Batman in The Flash 31 years after he hung up the cowl, and it completely destroyed the entire DC multiverse. Michael Keaton famously played Bruce Wayne in Tim Burton's two Batman films, 1989's Batman and 1992's Batman Returns. He then departed from the role when director Joel Schumacher took over, and both Val Kilmer and George Clooney would follow his portrayal of Bruce Wayne. Though he left the Batman franchise reportedly due to creative differences about the character, Keaton actually returned to the role in The Flash in 2023, 31 years after Batman Returns. While seeing Keaton play the Caped Crusader again was a great moment for fans of Burton's movies, it was also absolutely detrimental to them. Batman 's story in The Flash actually ended up destroying the Burton-Schumacher continuity, or what was left of it.
Michael Keaton's The Flash Return Rewrote The Burton-Schumacher Continuity The continuity of Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's respective Batman films from 1989 to 1997 was a bit messy from the start. Bruce Wayne himself was recast twice, with Michael Keaton playing the role in Batman and Batman Returns, only for Val Kilmer to take on the role in Batman Forever, and finally for George Clooney to finish out the series with Batman & Robin. Despite the constantly changing lead actor, these films were supposed to be in the same continuity. All four Batman films from the late 1980s and 1990s were intended to be about the same iteration of Bruce Wayne. This can be seen in some actors who carried over between films, like Pat Hingle and Michael Gough. Both Batman Forever and Batman & Robin were direct sequels to the films that came before them, meaning both Kilmer and Clooney were playing older versions of Keaton's Bruce Wayne. There was a loose chronology tying Burton's Batman movies to Schumacher's, but in 2023, The Flash destroyed what little connection there was.
The Flash ignored the events of both Batman Forever and Batman & Robin and instead focused on Keaton's portrayal of Bruce Wayne. To make matters worse, George Clooney's cameo appearance at the end of the movie indicated that the Bruce from Batman & Robin was a different person from the one Keaton played in Batman and Batman Returns. With all the changes The Flash made to Batman, there was essentially no chronology to the 90s Batman movies at all anymore. The quadrology doesn't work as a series of sequels if Clooney's Batman is a different person entirely. The Flash also implied that the events of Batman Forever and Batman & Robin simply didn't happen to Keaton's version. The Flash completely upended what little sense fans had been able to make of that series of movies.
DC's Batman '89 Comics Gave Michael Keaton's Dark Knight His Own Sequels The Flash didn't just upend the chronology of the Burton and Schumacher Batman movies, however, it also upended the plans for a continuation of Tim Burton's films. Tim Burton originally planned a trilogy of Batman movies, but he only managed to direct Batman and Batman Returns. Burton had a plan for a third Batman film. It would have seen the return of Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman, Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent become Two-Face, Robin Williams potentially playing the Riddler, and Marlon Wayans playing Robin. While Burton never got a chance to make his third Batman movie, his plan for the franchise lived on in the comic Batman '89. As the title suggests, the comic used Burton's plan and was a more direct sequel to Batman Returns that incorporated many of the plot elements of the scrapped third film. Batman '89 was even written by Sam Hamm, one of the writers of the original 1989 Batman movie.
Batman's 90s Movie Saga Has One Of The Weirdest Chronologies In The DC Multiverse As previously mentioned, Tim Burton's and Joel Schumacher's Batman films in the 1990s had the messiest and weirdest chronology in any DC story. Originally, Tim Burton was supposed to make three Batman films with Michael Keaton as the lead. Then, of course, the third movie was canceled, Joel Schumacher was brought on to direct two additional movies with Val Kilmer and George Clooney taking on the role, and the trilogy became a loosely connected series of quasi-sequels. It gets weirder than that, however. Halle Berry's Catwoman movie was originally intended to be a spinoff of Batman Returns featuring Michelle Pfeiffer reprising her titular role. Catwoman even has a Batman Returns Easter egg in the form of a picture of Pfeiffer in her Catwoman suit. That original plan obviously didn't happen, but the Easter egg remains, so Catwoman now sits somewhere in the tangled web that is the Burton-Schumacher chronology. Years later, the Arrowverse revived the Burton-Schumacher continuity yet again for its Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. In Batwoman's episode of the event, Batwoman meets an older Bruce Wayne from Earth-99, and there's a real possibility he's supposed to be an aged-up version of Keaton's character. The proof lies in Conroy's Batmobile, which bears a striking resemblance to Keaton's. Finally, The Flash rearranged absolutely everything about the Burton-Schumacher continuity as previously discussed. All of these movies, shows, spinoffs, canceled and planned projects, and comic follow-ups have resulted in an indecipherable chronology. Trying to find some common thread that connects everything feels like plotting a particularly insane conspiracy theory with yarn on a cork board, and it's nearly impossible to tell what remains canon and what can be written off as a spinoff at this point.
Michael Keaton Almost Became The DCEU's Batman Adding another layer of intrigue to the saga of The Flash's impact on Michael Keaton's time as Batman is the fact that Keaton was briefly considered to take over for Ben Affleck as the DCEU's main Batman. When Keaton was first confirmed to be appearing in The Flash, commentators and fans initially assumed that the'two planned sagas' mentioned by reporter Brooks Barnes meant one centering around Robert Pattinson and one focusing on Keaton, with Keaton's version appearing in the mainline DCEU films. Keaton obviously never got a chance to star in any more Batman films after The Flash, and it seems he was only ever intended to appear in The Flash. Even if he had been picked as the DCEU's Batman, he wouldn't have enjoyed the role for long, as The Flash was the final film of Zack Snyder's DCEU. Now, James Gunn has restarted DC's film efforts with the DCU, and Keaton likely won't be returning as Bruce Wayne again.
It's probably for the best that Keaton didn't become the DCEU's main Batman, as the franchise then would have had to figure out what was going on with the Burton-Schumacher continuity for the films to make any sort of sense. After The Flash nuked whatever connections those films had, reconstructing a continuity would have been much easier said than done. While it wasn't the main cause of the DCEU's end, it is interesting that Michael Keaton's Batman was the one to destroy the franchise's multiverse.
Batman The Flash Michael Keaton DC Multiverse Film Continuity
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