Can you picture Steven Seagal in the Batsuit? Well, Warner Bros. certainly could back in the late '80s when the role of
Batman/Bruce Wayne was being cast for Tim Burton's first ever big-screen take on the iconic DC hero.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the film, Screenwriter Sam Hamm gave
SyFy Wire an intriguing insight into the studio's early plans for the character. It seems WB had decided to focus more on Batman than Bruce Wayne, and wanted to cast someone who could handle the physical aspects of the role.
One name the studio suggested was then rising action movie star Steven Seagal.
“There were a lot of people at Warner Brother who wanted to cast it with an action star. They wanted to cast the part as Batman, as opposed to casting it as Bruce Wayne. You have to make Bruce Wayne work, because Batman is, for the most part, going to be a stunt guy, or it’s going to be somebody running around in a costume in long shot. You don’t need the martial arts expertise of, say, Steven Seagal or somebody like that because you can fake all of that kind of stuff. Seagal was one of the people that was suggested to us.”
Hamm doesn't think Seagal ever actually read for the part, and, thankfully, the far more capable and charismatic Michael Keaton ultimately donned the cape and cowl.
While Bruce Wayne is arguably more important to get right than Batman, a lot of fans believe that The Caped Crusader's considerable fighting prowess still hasn't been done justice to in live-action. Hopefully that's something Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson take into account for their upcoming reboot.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.