Now that he’s begun work on The Flash, Michael Keaton has been noticeably more pumped about returning as Batman after 30 years, and he brought some of that enthusiasm to The Late Show on Tuesday night. While promoting his new Hulu series, Dopesick, Keaton proudly informed Stephen Colbert that his Batsuit still fits after the late night host asked if it needed to be “let out.”
“Svelte as ever,” Keaton responded. “Same dimensions. Same fitting.”
While also agreeing with Colbert that his performance in Tim Burton’s Batman is the “gold standard,” Keaton jokingly offered some assistance to all of the other Batmen that followed.
“I don’t know how many there are, like 77 Batmans,” he quipped. “They should form their own union.”
Jokes aside, Keaton has never been shy over the years about admitting that he stopped following the movies after he passed on Batman Forever, so it was pretty notable when he took a moment to specifically praise one Batman actor: Will Arnett. Keaton has never gushed about any of the other Batman films, but he made it a point to tell Colbert how much he loved The Lego Batman Movie. Christian Bale never got a shout-out like that.
Keaton’s return is obviously a huge get for The Flash movie that has been stuck in development hell for several years now. Although, Keaton reprising his role as The Dark Knight was looking iffy there for a while. Before his casting was officially confirmed, the actor made it very clear in interviews that if the COVID situation wasn’t looking good, he wasn’t putting the tights back on, which is completely understandable. Fortunately, Keaton felt safe enough to return, and he recently admitted to The Hollywood Reporter his reason for coming back.
“Frankly, in the back of my head, I always thought, ‘I bet I could go back and nail that motherf*cker.'”
We’ll take that action.
