While most people are thrilled about getting to see Michael Keaton return as Batman in The Flash, there was unfortunately some backlash against the decision to bring him back for Batgirl as well.
Admittedly, it was really just a vocal minority, but nevertheless, Kevin Smith has now spoken up to defend Keaton and had the following to say about it all:
“I’m a big fan of Michael Keaton as Batman. I was a big fan of Ben Affleck as Batman as well, but as we just saw recently in an interview, Ben was like ‘I’m not going to do IP movies anymore.’ So, Ben has made it clear for a number of years now that he’s done playing Batman. Not that Warner Bros. is done with him; he’s done with them.
So they couldn’t use Ben as the Batman for this new Batgirl movie, and at that point you’re already doing Michael Keaton Batman in Flash…it seems to make sense. I assumed Michael Keaton was as beloved for every generation as he is to mine, but some folks on Twitter were very angry about that — but angry at the wrong person.
Continuing on, he shared:
This ain’t a case of Warner Bros. screwing the pooch or something. The person they would like to keep playing Batman just doesn’t seem interested in playing Batman at all, and has made that very clear for a very hot minute. So in lieu of Ben, who else are you going to do? Bring on a brand-new Batman, start that? Obviously Matt Reeves is doing a very different-from-the-DCEU-movies version of Batman, so you can’t get him.
So it makes sense. If you need a veteran, an older guy, if you’re going to do this Batman Beyond version of Batgirl, where she’s kind of Terry McGinnis in training, and he’s the grizzled old vet or something? I cosign it, because that was my Batman, that was our Batman. I mean, Adam West was my first Batman, but Michael Keaton was a wonderful Batman, and I think it’s crazy seeing people on Twitter going after that decision.”
As usual, Smith makes some excellent points, and we imagine that once everyone sees how incredible it is having Keaton back in The Flash, they’ll be giddy with anticipation to see him again in Batgirl.
Source: ComicBook.com
