Michael Keaton is just like a full-time Batman now, apparently — like the guy on Hollywood Boulevard. The Hollywood Reporter says that Keaton is joining the cast of HBO Max’s Batgirl movie, most likely in the role of Batman. He joins Brendan Fraser, also beloved by ’90s kids the world over, who plays the villainous Firefly and In the Heights star Leslie Grace as Batgirl. The film will be directed by the Bad Boys 4 Life duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.
Keaton is already reprising his Dark Knight role in The Flash starring Ezra Miller. THR conjectures that Keaton’s Batman could function like Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, a movie-spanning fella recruiting superheroes into a new DC Universe. However, Batgirl was expected to be stand-alone. But what is a stand-alone — and what is a shared universe — in a world that contains multiverses of madness and Snyder cuts? What exactly is the DCEU? Is Harley Quinn dead like in the Snyder cut, or is she doing heists with Cassandra Cain and Suicide Squadding it up? Who cares! We have evolved beyond the need for singular cinematic universes.