Bill Murray has had a long and varied career, from his Saturday Night Live appearances, through comedy movies like Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters, to his recent work with Wes Anderson and an upcoming role in the MCU. At one point in the 1980s, there was a possibility of the much-loved actor playing Batman on the big screen in a movie by Ivan Reitman. In a recent interview, Murray explained why he turned down the chance to portray the Dark Knight on screen, which effectively ended the whole project.
The Batman arrived in theaters last week to introduce another new Batman to the world in the form of Robert Pattinson, and Keanu Reeves will be heard this summer voicing the Gotham vigilante in DC’s League of Super-Pets, but among all the actors who have played Batman, Bill Murray is one that got away after Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman pitched a movie to the actor that was passed on by the actor.
According to Murray, the project would have seen Murray teaming up with another comedy legend of the 80s, Eddie Murphy, who was wanted to play Robin in the movie. If it had gone ahead, Murray would have only been the second actor to play Batman, following in the footsteps of TV series star Adam West. However, with the main parties seemingly not on board, the whole project disappeared into obscurity. While speaking to Yahoo Entertainment, Murray explained how “vanity” was essentially the reason that we never saw him on screen as the Dark Knight. He said:
"I talked to Eddie Murphy about it and Eddie wanted to play Batman. That’s as far as the conversation went…I don't wanna be the Boy Wonder to anybody. Maybe much earlier, when I was a boy. But it was too late for that by the '80s. Also, I couldn't do the outfit. Eddie looks good in purple, and I look good in purple. In red and green, I look like one of Santa's elves. There was just a lot of vanity involved in the production. It wasn't gonna happen."
Bill Murray’s Career Certainly Didn’t Suffer For Not Playing Batman
In retrospect, things did not turn out too badly for either Murray or the Batman franchise in the wake of the failed project. Michael Keaton would go on to become the first big-screen Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 movie, a role he is returning to in the upcoming The Flash and Batgirl movies, and as for Bill Murray, well, his IMDb profile speaks for itself as to how he managed to get over not appearing as the Caped Crusader in his career.
It is almost impossible to see Murray playing Batman as he appears in any of his big-screen outings, even the less than serious Batman & Robin, but following on from the 60s TV show, which was much less intense than the character’s comic book origins, it could have worked. However, Murray has made his mark in many other ways and is not done yet. He recently reprised his role as Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters: Afterlife after many years of avoiding a return to the franchise, and has been cast in a villain role in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and the Zac Efron movie The Greatest Beer Run Ever.