The Flash Super Bowl trailer reveals first look at Michael Keaton’s return as Batman

It’s been 31 years since Michael Keaton last pulled on the iconic costume, and now we’ve been teased with his return.

The Flash trailer Picture: Warner Bros

Just when you started to wonder if The Flash movie was ever going to be released, here comes the trailer fans were waiting for.

Timed to the 2023 Super Bowl, the trailer teases Barry Allen’s first solo adventure, a universe-warping drama where time itself is at stake.

Maybe what’s most exciting are the glimpses of three returning characters, including Michael Shannon’s Zod and Ben Affleck’s Batman.

But the real allure is Michael Keaton as Batman, a role he’s reprising for the first time in 31 years, since Tim Burton’s Caped Crusader movies Batman in 1989 and Batman Returns in 1992.

First seen from behind as his iconic silhouette, before revealing Keaton’s face in the famous cowl, the character introduction is even accompanied by the familiar refrain of Danny Elfman’s theme from the 1989 movie.

Keaton has previously said he was convinced to sign up to The Flash by director Andy Muschietti’s vision and screenwriter Christina Hodson’s script.

And he wanted to see if he could pull it off. He told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021, “Frankly, in the back of my head, I always thought, ‘I bet I could go back and nail that motherf**ker.”

Michael Keaton re-dons Batman’s famous cowl. Picture: Warner Bros

He said it took some explaining for him to understand The Flash’s parallel universes and but that when he went back, he understood the character “on a whole other level now”.

“I totally respect it,” he said. “I respect what people are trying to make. I never looked at it like, ‘Oh, this is just a silly thing’. It was not a silly thing when I did Batman. But it has become a giant thing, culturally.

“It’s iconic. So I have even more respect for it because what do I know? This is a big deal in the world to people. You’ve got to honour that and be respectful of that. Even I go, ‘Jesus, this is huge’.

Val Kilmer took over the role of Batman in Joel Schumacher’s 1995 sequel Batman Forever after Keaton didn’t like the script.

Before you see Keaton’s Batman midway through The Flash trailer, you’ll recognise Keaton’s voice, as the originally unseen character poses an important question to Barry Allen/The Flash.

He said, “Tell me something, you can go anywhere, another timeline, another universe so why do you want to stay and fight to save this one?” To which Allen answered, “Because this is the one where my mum lives, I’m not going to lose her again.”

Ben Affleck reprises his version of Batman. Picture: Warner Bros

The lines set up the emotional stakes of The Flash movie, and could potentially be the thing that grounds it in a high concept film that is aiming to fit in a lot of plot and characters in a story about time-travelling and universe-jumping.

In the trailer, Affleck’s Batman warns Barry, “If you were to go into the past, you have no idea what the consequences would be”.

Barry’s reply of, “Bruce, I can fix things” doesn’t inspire much confidence in the billionaire superhero who shoots back, “You can also destroy everything.”

By the end of the trailer, it’s looking grim when Barry says, “This can’t be happening, I completely broke the universe.”

There was also a glimpse of a super-powered Kryptonian, but it wasn’t Superman – “That wasn’t Clark”, Barry so helpfully pointed out – but Supergirl, also known as Kara Zor-El.

Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot had both reportedly filmed cameos for the film but were ultimately cut after it was decided by the recently installed studio team that planned sequels for their versions of Superman and Wonder Woman would not be moving forward.

The Flash reveals a new version of Supergirl. Picture: Warner Bros

James Gunn, now co-chief executive of DC Studios, earlier this month unveiled the next slate of DC movies and TV shows under his tenure. In the same announcement, he said The Flash would “reset the entire DC universe”.

The Flash was filmed in mid-2021 but was delayed due to a backlog in visual effects work. Warner Bros also had to contend with the mounting controversy around lead Ezra Miller who had several run-ins with police and was arrested for felony burglary, disorderly conduct and assault across two US states.

Miller, who identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns they and them, released a statement in August which said they were going through a “time of intense crisis” and was “suffering complex mental health issues”.

Miller said they had started ongoing treatment.

The Flash is in cinemas on June 15

Originally published as The Flash Super Bowl trailer reveals first look at Michael Keaton’s return as Batman