It was revealed last month that Michael Keaton’s appearance as Batman in The Flash will not be the only time we see the actor donning the cape and cowl in the near future, with his appearance in the new Batgirl movie being confirmed along with the return of J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, who will be reprising the role from Zack Snyder’s Justice League. While fans are excited to see Keaton back as Batman, a new set photo has hinted that his version of the hero could be getting a sidekick for the first time.Michael Keaton appeared in two movies under the direction of Tim Burton with Batman bringing the Dark Knight to the big screen in 1989 and Batman Returns following in 1992. While 1995’s Batman Forever would introduce Chris O’Donnell’s Robin alongside Val Kilmer’s Batman, Keaton’s iteration previously worked alone but that could be set to change in his latest unexpected appearance, which could also be set to be his last.A new set of photos from the set of Batgirl have revealed a piece of the set that is designed to look like a wall mural featuring Batman being put into place during recent filming in Glasgow, Scotland. While these shots are interesting enough, featuring a new look good look at Keaton’s version of Batman, one in particular that shows the entire mural suggests that the DCEU is giving Keaton’s Batman a long-missing sidekick in The Boy Wonder, Robin. Although this does not mean that Robin will appear in the movie, it is clear that the artwork is going to have some featured reference and suggest that the idea of The Boy Wonder does exist in the current DC world.[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/BatgirlFilm/status/1480635389606043651[/EMBED_TWITTER][EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/BatgirlFilm/status/1480626824870834177[/EMBED_TWITTER]
Robin Has Been Absent From Batman Movies Since 1997’s Batman & Robin.
Although Robin has been a prominent fixture in the Batman comic books since his introduction in 1940, appearing in numerous forms as the character aged and was replaced with the mantle being passed on to a successor, his last appearance in a Batman movie was in the ill-fated Batman & Robin, and considering how badly that movie was received it is not surprising that he did not feature in Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, and has not appeared in the DCEU other than as a tattered costume in Batman V Superman, suggesting the character’s death had already happened before the time of the movie. His only other recent appearance in live-action has been in the DC’s Titans series, which has currently not been linked to the movies in any way.
While the mural could be used as a throwback memory in Batgirl, showing that the Dynamic Duo have previously existed in this part of the DCEU, it will be interesting to see if he does feature at all as a character in the movie considering it has been hinted that the film will serve as Batgirls’ origin story and will see Bruce Wayne passing on his Gotham Knight mantle to Barbara Gordon. The image of Batman on the mural does seem to show a “current” Batman that is pretty much identical in appearance to the Tim Burton movies, which would suggest an expected and substantial time jump between Batman Returns and Batgirl during which Robin could have had his moment.
We will have quite a wait before this particular conundrum is cleared with Batgirl having no current release date, although it has been said that the film will debut on HBO Max sometime in 2022.