Christopher Polk/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Michael Keaton, who played the titular characted in Tim Burton’s 1989 film Batman and its 1992 sequel, Batman Returns, is in talks to reprise the role in the upcoming DC Comics movie The Flash, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

That’s not all, though.  If a deal is struck, the veteran actor could also turn up as the caped crusader in other DC films.  Insiders tell the industry trade that Keaton’s Batman could function as “something of a mentor or guide or even string-puller,” similar to Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Batgirl could be one such movie, according to THR.

Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman has already cast Robert Pattinson in the title role, but The Flash project is being viewed as separate from other DC Universe films.  Additionally, with The Flash’s storyline reportedly involving time and inter-dimensional travel, Keaton’s Batman could potentially cross over from one “movie universe” into another.

Following his turns in Burton’s Batman films, Keaton, 68, tried to distance himself from the role, and even tweaked it in 2014’s Birdman, in which he played an actor that once starred in superhero movies.

Ezra Miller, who played Barry Allen — a.k.a. The Flash — in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League in 2017, is already on board to reprise the role in the upcoming film, set to start rolling in spring 2021.

By George Costantino
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