Michael Keaton was undoubtedly a fan favorite when he held the mantel ofBatman, but it’s been thirty years since Keaton last donned the suit, appearing in 1989’sBatmanand 1992’sBatman Returns,directed by Tim Burton. He was offered the opportunity to return to the role in 1995 forBatman Foreverbut decided to step away from the hero’s iconic shoes due to creative differences, and now he’s opened up about why he made that choice.
WhileBatmanwas the calling card that attracted audiences to the theater, Keaton always saw Bruce Wayne as the more intriguing story to put front and center. The man behind the iconic mask carried within himself darkness cloaked behind the antics of the vigilante, which Keaton wanted to explore and develop further.
RELATED:Michael Keaton Is Excited To Get Another Shot At Batman In The Flash
“It was always Bruce Wayne. It was never Batman. To me, I know the name of the movie isBatman, and it’s hugely iconic and very cool and culturally iconic and because of Tim Burton, artistically iconic. I knew from the get-go it was Bruce Wayne. That was the secret. I never talked about it,” Keaton said in an episode ofIn the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast, where he touched upon the vision he and Burton shared. The cloudiness embedded within Bruce Wayne is at the heart of what makes Batman a terrifying presence to those who encounter him. Keaton understood that and wanted to see the man’s depths investigated to build a stronger connection between him and the audience.Batman alone is worth watching, but seeing inside the man’s overall psychology makes the adventure much more memorable. “Batman, Batman, Batman does this, and I kept thinking to myself, ‘Y’all are thinking wrong here.’ Bruce Wayne. What kind of person does that?… Who becomes that?” articulated Keaton, whose creative vision for the narrative mirrored Burton’s direction. However, when Warner Bros. replaced Burton with Joel Schumacher, things took an unexpected turn, which prompted Keaton’s departure from the role.
Keaton wanted to stay the course with the character he and Burton had created and the dark atmosphere that enveloped the narrative. Schumacher, however, had a different approach and was more interested inthe story offered by the Batman comics. “When the director who directed the third one came on I said, ‘I just can’t do it. And one of the reasons I couldn’t do it was—and you know, he’s a nice enough man, he’s passed away, so I wouldn’t speak ill of him even if he were alive—he, at one point, after more than a couple of meetings where I kept trying to rationalize doing it and hopefully talking him into saying I think we don’t want to go in this direction, I think we should go in this direction. And he wasn’t going to budge,” Keaton recalled. The rift between the two ultimately led to Keaton bowing out of the 1995Batman Foreverproject, where Val Kilmer replaced him.
Time has shown that Keaton’s approach to the Caped Crusader is one that audiences fully resonate with on a personal level.The Dark Knighttrilogy, which Christopher Nolan helmed, created a more realistic and authentic feel to the story of the vigilante that focused not only on the hero but also on the man behind the mask. Matt Reeves’s newest take on the hero in his upcoming filmThe Batmanwill follow a similar approach but seeks to dive even deeper into the psychological aspect of the character.
While it’s been thirty years, Keaton will return to the suit once more,not only inThe Flashbut the upcomingBatgirlproject as well. It’s unclear whether Keaton will see his vision for Batman come to fruition this time around, but lovers of the character are excited to see the actor take up the mantel of the masked vigilante again. Absence sometimes makes the heart grow fonder, but time will tell if the return lives up to expectations.
Batman (1989)is now available to stream on HBO Max.
MORE:These Factors Are Why Most Superhero Films Can’t Top The Dark Knight Trilogy
