Over the weekend, it was reported that Jeffrey Dean Morgan was being eyed to play the Flashpoint Batman in The Flash, but The Wrap's Umberto Gonzalez has now revealed that the information came from an incorrect and outdated casting grid. In fact, he explains that it was actually a "fake plant" to throw many of Twitter's so-called "scoopers" off the scent.
Of course, it was yesterday evening that the trades broke the news about Batman star Michael Keaton being in early talks to reprise the role of the Caped Crusader, and Gonzalez reiterates that "he is playing a much older Bruce Wayne from the Burtonverse, NOT Thomas Wayne."
Here's the bad news, though.
"There is no Thomas Wayne Flashpoint Batman in THE FLASH," he notes. "It was discussed very early on in development stages a while back which matured into Micheal Keaton reprising his Bruce Wayne from Burtonverse INSTEAD of going the Thomas Wayne direction."
While this is going to disappoint a lot of fans, it does make sense. Despite the planned release of Zack Snyder's Justice League on HBO Max, Warner Bros. is looking to move on from the filmmaker's vision for the DC Extended Universe, so bringing Jeffrey Dean Morgan back as Thomas Wayne might not have landed with moviegoers (it's also likely to have far less impact on casual fans than the return of Keaton as the original big screen Batman).
It's clearly very early days, but the DCEU is heading down some very unexpected directions, and will soon have a new Batman, albeit one with a familiar face, if these early talks do indeed pan out.