What would it take for Batman to retire? Several versions of the Caped Crusader see the Batman fighting until old, old age. But in the Christopher Nolan trilogy of films, we did see Christian Bale “retire” his Batman gig between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises as he mourned the loss of Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal). If you tried to watch the DC Batman movies in order, you would get to Ben Affleck’s older Bruce Wayne introduced in Zack Snyder’s universe. And finally, the once-again retired Bruce Wayne played by Michael Keaton in this past summer’s The Flash. But WHY did that Wayne hang up his cape and cowl?
Reaction to The Flash now that it’s available with a Max subscription has been mixed. Nicolas Cage gently ribbed his all-too-brief Superman cameo in the movie. But our own Corey Chichizola still feels like The Flash didn’t get a fair shake. Personally, I think it’s an excellent Flash movie, and I liked Michael Keaton’s return as Batman from his two Tim Burton movies. But when we meet Keaton’s Bruce Wayne, he’s been out of commission for several years. And while appearing on CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast, director Andy Muschietti explained that there will be a deleted scene that eventually clears up the mystery of Bruce Wayne, and what forced him out of playing Batman.
Muschietti told the ReelBlend guys:
I wanted to find Bruce in a place where people do not expect to find him. So basically, it’s a Batman that quit some years ago for a reason that you won’t see in the movie. But you’re going to see it in the deleted scenes when you see that scene where they explain why Batman quit. … Let’s say he did something that he’s not proud of. He made a mistake, right? And the very reason that he knows so much – I mean, when you were watching the movie, you didn’t wonder, ‘How does he know so much about time travel?’ … Maybe he tried to fix things.
The scene in question that Andy Muschietti is referring to takes place in the Wayne kitchen, where Bruce (Michael Keaton) uses spaghetti to explain the structure of the multiverse. It played out like this:
So wait, does this mean that Michael Keaton’s Batman successfully traveled back through time the way that Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen did in the movie? And if he does figure out time travel, did Keaton’s Batman possibly try and prevent his parents from being murdered in Crime Alley, the way that Barry tries to do? Andy Muschietti stopped short of that, telling ReelBlend:
I never said that he achieved it. I never said that he managed to travel back in time. But I think he made a mistake and he couldn’t live with. And, of course, if you see the movie, he has a whole narrative about it. And when the Barrys ask him, ‘You don’t want to be Batman anymore?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, Gotham doesn’t need me anymore. It’s one of the safest cities in the world.’ Bullshit. In what universe is Gotham the safest city in the world? … In this scene, in this deleted scene, they’re traveling to Siberia, and the two Barrys are whispering in the back and he’s like… I’m not going to spoil it. But this all comes from discussing the Batman, and the state that we found Batman in.
Muschietti has talked about such mistakes in the past. And the deleted scene he discussed will be part of the physical media for The Flash when it reaches stores on August 29. From the sound of everything, though, we won’t see any more from this Flash universe in any upcoming DC movies. While James Gunn says that The Blue Beetle will continue on in the rebooted DC Universe, the box office failures of The Flash likely confirm that this interpretation of the character is over… and might swallow Jason Momoa’s Aquaman in the process.