It's now become clear that James Gunn and Peter Safran intend to forge ahead with their plans to "reset" the DCU, but it sounds like there may have been some projects in the early stages of development we didn't know about that have also been nixed along with the likes of Wonder Woman 3 and Black Adam 2.
Batman '89 and Batman Returns star Michael Keaton is (was?) set to return as an older take on the Dark Knight for several upcoming projects, but with Batgirl cancelled and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in a state of flux, he may only end up appearing up in The Flash - and if recent rumors are to believed, that might not even be a sure thing.
Now, we're hearing that the Oscar-nominated actor was set to star in a solo Batman movie before the recent changing of the guard.
According to Jeff Sneider on the latest episode of the Hot Mic podcast, Birds of Prey, The Flash and Batgirl writer Christina Hodson was working on (or had possibly completed) a script for a new Batman film featuring Keaton as the Caped Crusader. Whether Gunn and Safran scrapped the project when they took over or David Zaslav made the decision beforehand is unclear, but either way, it's unlikely to see the light of day.
This news is sure to disappoint fans of Tim Burton's films who were looking forward to seeing Keaton - who many still consider to be the best live-action Batman - back in the cape and cowl. Is there a chance this now defunct project could have been based on Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns? Or maybe even a Batman Beyond movie? We may never know for sure.
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.