The Flash director Andy Muschietti and producer Barbara Muschietti had no Plan B should Batman Returns star Michael Keaton have said “no” to reprising the DC role all these years later. Speaking with Collider, the Muschietti’s revealed that, had Keaton not been interested in donning the cape and cowl again, The Flash would have ended up completely different. As Barbara Muschietti explains it…

“We wouldn’t have made this movie. We wouldn’t have been able to make this movie as it is. We made it clear to him the first time we sat with him for lunch if he had said no, it would have been a completely different story.”

With multiversal madness on the mind, Andy Muschietti chimed in, believing that somewhere out there exists a version of The Flash without Michael Keaton’s Batman. Perhaps it has George Clooney’s Batman variant instead.

“In the Multiverse, there’s probably a version of this movie without Michael Keaton.”

Barbara even suggests that, had Keaton said “no thanks,” the Muschietti’s would not have even been involved saying “[Laughs] But we were not attached,” with Andy adding “Somewhere in the Multiverse.” Considering that The Flash has been met with far more delays than most, we can only wonder if the movie would ever have made it to the big screen had Keaton shown the Muschietti’s the door.

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Michael Keaton Returns as Batman After More Than 30 Years
Warner Bros. Pictures

Thankfully, Michael Keaton was eager to play Batman again, with The Flash marking the actor’s return to the world of DC after more than 30 years. And it has been clear from the start that The Flash hinges a lot on Keaton’s Batman return. The marketing for the movie has put a lot of focus on the comeback of his aged Dark Knight, with the character playing a major role in the story and helping Barry Allen fix the multiverse. At one stage, there were even plans in place for Keaton to become the main Batman of the DCU, appearing in the canceled Batgirl movie and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

However, with James Gunn and Peter Safran now in charge, this will no longer be the case, with The Flash likely to be the last time we see Keaton suit up as The Caped Crusader.

Directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Christina Hodson, The Flash finds Barry Allen aka The Flash traveling back in time to prevent his mother’s murder. Instead, he finds himself trapped in an alternate reality and must enlist the help of his younger self, an older Batman, and the Kryptonian castaway Supergirl in order to save this world from the restored General Zod and return to his universe.

Starring Ezra Miller as Barry Allen aka The Flash alongside Sasha Calle as Supergirl, Michael Shannon as General Zod, Ron Livingston as Henry Allen, Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, Antje Traue as Faora-Ul, and both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck as alternate versions of Bruce Wayne/Batman, The Flash is scheduled to be released in the United States on June 16, 2023.