Despite an apparently very popular football game happening before and after it, millions of comic book movie fans got their first in-depth look at the highly touted DCEU into DCU game changer The Flash last night when DC finally dropped the new official trailer. And it’s fair to say it’s driving people literally batty. Barry Allen’s race through reality gave us glimpses of Michael Keaton as Batman and Ben Affleck as Batman and fans are already saying “Why stop there?” in hopes the film could be the DCU’S answer to 2021’s ultimate Spider-Man (Spider-Men?) reunion in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
There’s no doubt that every Batman fan’s heart started to beat faster when the unmistakable opening strains of Danny Elfman’s theme to the original 1989 Batman were heard in the new trailer. And we didn’t have to wait long to see that DCEU Batman Ben Affleck was also appearing. But online fans were already wondering whether or not DC and Warner Bros. Discovery were keeping a few bat cards close to their chests. After all, two famous caped crusaders are still missing from the roll call: The Dark Knight’s Christian Bale, and The Batman‘s Robert Pattinson. And technically, both George Clooney and Val Kilmer, although both were essentially just different actors in playing the character Keaton established in one consistent reality.
Kilmer definitely stands the least chance of a cameo out of the five possibilities, given that the actor’s struggles with throat cancer have drastically altered his voice. However, the actor did make a cameo appearance last year in Top Gun: Maverick, and has worked with AI tech to digitally recreate his voice so a brief appearance could occur. The only things keeping Clooney from appearing are his price point, and sheer embarrassment; the actor has publicly apologized for his ill-received efforts in Batman and Robin.
Other possibilities include Christian Bale, who hung up his cowl after 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises. Bale is definitely physically up for the role, but might be less than willing to reprise the part due to his own desire to appear versatile (not to mention the fact that he might be unwilling to appear in any superhero project again after the lackluster reception of Thor: Love and Thunder).
If anyone shows up again, it may be the under-contract-to-DC Robert Pattinson. In the trailer, Barry speaks about accidentally creating a world without metahumans, but that wouldn’t discount the existence of The Batman, who has no actual “superpower.”That said, director Matt Reeves may be loath to muddy the waters between his self-contained Elseworld and that of the DCEU and DCU.
Much like with No Way Home, it may be that the only way to find out just which Batmen we’ll see is to be in line when The Flash hits theaters on June 23.