It seems Michael Biehn came very close to playing Batman in Tim Burton's 1989 film prior to Michael Keaton landing the role.
In a clip from the latest episode of his Just Foolin' Around podcast, the Terminator and Aliens star revealed that he had two meetings with Burton about potentially suiting-up as the Dark Knight in the hero's first big screen outing.
According to Biehn, Burton was considering two sets of actors at the time: himself as Batman alongside Robin Williams as the Joker, as well as Keaton and Jack Nicholson, who were ultimately cast.
We knew that Williams was in the mix to play the Clown Prince of Crime back in the day, but this is the first time we've heard Biehn's name mentioned in connection with the Caped Crusader. He certainly would have been an interesting choice for the character, but Keaton wasn't exactly seen as the most conventional pick either, and a lot of fans still consider him the best live-action take on the iconic DC Comics hero yet.
Biehn appeared in an episode of The Mandalorian's second season, and is set to make his mainstream big-screen comeback in Adam Wingard's action horror flick, Onslaught.
The movie will also star Adria Arjona, Reginald VelJohnson, Dan Stevens, Drew Starkey and UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Alex “Poatan” Pereira. Plot details are still pretty vague, but we do know that Arjona will play "a mother living in a trailer who falls back on a particular set of skills in order to protect her loved ones after she runs afoul of a threat that has escaped a secret military base."
Biehn will play a leader of an elite group of mercenaries who try to reign in the threat. VelJohnson is playing a member of the mother’s trailer park community, as is Wareheim. Pereira is the main villain of the story, a character named The Butcher. Stevens will play a German scientist working on the experiments that escape.
"Having witnessed his parents' brutal murder as a child, millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) fights crime in Gotham City disguised as Batman, a costumed hero who strikes fear into the hearts of villains. But when a deformed madman who calls himself The Joker (Jack Nicholson) seizes control of Gotham's criminal underworld, Batman must face his most ruthless nemesis ever while protecting both his identity and his love interest, reporter Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger)."