Batman 1989 is the only comic book movie Michael Keaton has ever seen

Between his iconic portrayal of Batman and Spider-Man villain Adrian Toomes, aka Vulture, Michael Keaton has been around the block more than most actors when it comes to comic book movies. Despite being a famous face to comic fans for over three decades, Keaton surprisingly isn’t an adoring fan of the genre. In fact, the only superhero movie he’s seen from beginning to end is his very own Batman (1989).

“After the first Batman, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an entire [comic book] movie,” Keaton revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. This means that he hasn’t seen Batman Returns (1992), his second outing as the Caped Crusader. He sure is missing out. Who doesn’t love Danny DeVito’s performance as Oswald Cobblepot?

Anyway, it turns out that Keaton is, quite simply, way too busy to watch the glut of superhero movies out there. “I just never got around to it,” he said. “So you’re talking to a guy who wasn’t in the zeitgeist of that whole world. When I went down to do the Marvel things in Atlanta … It’s an entire city dedicated to Marvel … They’ll be doing Marvel movies forever. I’ll be dead, and they’ll still be doing Marvel movies.”

Next year, Keaton will reprise his role as the Vulture in Morbius, switching from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters. If you don’t remember the difference between those two, don’t worry: Keaton doesn’t either. “I’m nodding like I know what the fuck they’re talking about,”  Keaton said. “I go, ‘Uh-huh.’ And I’m thinking, ‘You may as well be explaining quantum physics right now to me. All I know is I just know my guy. And I know the basics. So finally, they were looking at me, and they just started laughing. They said, ‘You don’t know what we’re talking about, do you?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t, no idea what you’re talking about.’”

With his acting skills, I would’ve thought he could trick anyone.

Michael Keaton had to re-read The Flash scripts multiple times

Although Keaton is open about not knowing the minutia of these movies, he was still keen to reprise his role as Batman for the first time since 1992 in Andy Muschietti’s The Flash movie next year.  This film loosely adapts the popular Flashpoint comics, which involve the titular hero skpping around the multiverse; that’s how we’ll get multiple Bruce Waynes in one movie. Ben Affleck’s Batman will also appear.

As you can imagine, this was super hard for Michael Keaton to understand: “They had to explain that to me several times. By the way, I’m not being arrogant, I hope, about this. I don’t say it like, ‘I’m too groovy.’ I’m stupid. There’s a lot of things I don’t know about. And so, I don’t know, I just kind of figured it out, but this was different.”

"What’s really interesting is how much more I got [Batman] when I went back and did him. I get this on a whole other level now. I totally respect it. I respect what people are trying to make."

Just like the rumored additions of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s very exciting to see older, beloved actors return to their roles. Catch Keaton in The Flash when it premieres in November 2022!

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