While not the box office hit Warner Bros. Discovery was banking on, “The Flash” still succeeded in filling in more backstory for beloved DC Comics characters like The Flash (Ezra Miller) and Batman (played in the film across multiverses by Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck and, briefly, even George Clooney).
In a new behind-the-scenes featurette for the movie, director Andy Muschietti said that even with its 2.5-hour runtime, one key element of Batman’s story didn’t make the final cut: why Michael Keaton’s Batman retired.
Turns out, Muschietti revealed, the Defender of Gotham incidentally killed a criminal in front of their own child, mirroring the childhood tragedy that sent him on the path to being a feared vigilante in the first place.
“I always said something should happen to Bruce Wayne to want to stop being Batman,” Muschietti explained, “and my idea was, he did something that goes against his code and killed a criminal in front of [the criminal’s] child — not knowingly, but he still did it.”
The director added that it would have been “an exact mirroring situation of what happened to him when his parents were killed in front of him [next to] Monarch Theaters, and that created the monster that Batman is.”
What isn’t explained is why Muschietti ultimately cut this plot from “The Flash.” Instead, when Keaton’s Batman is asked why he hung up the mask and cape for good, the only explanation offered is that Gotham no longer needed him.
Last year, Keaton, who previously played Batman in Tim Burton’s “Batman” (1989) and “Batman Returns” (1992), explained to Backstage’s “In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast” why he walked away from the role, despite being asked to return for a third film.
Keaton admitted that his interest in the role was more about the man, not the superhero. He said, “It was always Bruce Wayne. It was never Batman. To me, I know the name of the movie is Batman, and it’s hugely iconic and very cool and [a] cultural iconic and because of Tim Burton, artistically iconic.”
He continued, “I knew from the get-go it was Bruce Wayne. That was the secret. I never talked about it. 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? What kind of person?”
Watch the entire “Flash” featurette with Muschietti in the video above.
