2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opened by revisiting the fateful night Thomas and Martha Wayne were gunned down in Crime Alley. However, perhaps the biggest surprise for fans was seeing Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan playing the iconic DC Comics couple.
They'd both starred in Supernatural (without ever sharing the screen) and later crossed paths in The Walking Dead. With two fairly noteworthy actors cast as Thomas and Martha, fans hoped that the planned Flashpoint movie would feature Morgan and Cohan as Batman and The Joker.
In the Flashpoint comic book, Barry Allen creates a new reality after travelling back in time to save his mother from the Reverse-Flash. Among the changes was Bruce Wayne being gunned down in front of his parents. That led to Thomas becoming Batman, and Martha being transformed into a twisted new version of The Joker.
In a new interview, Morgan confirmed that he was once in line to play Flashpoint Batman, hinting that Zack Snyder was the driving force behind his potential DCEU return as the anti-hero.
"Truthfully, Zack was gonna do more movies," he says in the video below. "And I think there was a time when Flashpoint Batman would have seen these two characters in a much bigger role. And that was part of the Zack world of all of it, and then I never got a chance to do that, unfortunately."
Cohan joined Morgan for the interview as they're promoting The Walking Dead: Dead City, but didn't comment on a potential Joker return. There's been nothing to suggest Snyder intended for Morgan to suit up as Batman in the "Knightmare" timeline. He was, however, producing The Flash movie at the time and had likely pushed for the Watchmen star to play a role in that.
The Flash movie went through multiple filmmakers, and countless ideas were dropped along the way. As a result, we ended up with a very different take on the story, with the 2023 movie instead choosing to focus on Dark Flash and Michael Keaton's Batman.
The latter took Thomas' role in The Flash, a disappointment to some, but an understandable decision given how popular Keaton's Bruce Wayne remains decades after he first played the hero.
Fans desperately wanted to see Morgan suit up as Batman. The moment has since passed, and the Scarlet Speedster will likely remain on the shelf for the foreseeable future after The Flash underwhelmed. It also seems doubtful that the DCU will tackle time-travel and the Multiverse, given how tired of the concept moviegoers and fans appear to be.
You can hear more from Morgan in the player below.