How Michael Keaton’s Batman Went From Flop to Phenomenon
2,319It’s 1988, and the new Batman has just been announced. There’s no internet, because it’s 1988, so I’m hearing this news on the corner of 12th Street and Broadway at Manhattan’s comic-book mecca of the time, Forbidden Planet.
But the thing is, people are pissed. Michael Keaton? Mr. Mom?! How could this guy be Batman?!
But it wasn’t just the fans. The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story in November of that year questioning the casting of Keaton as Batman. That in turn spurred on even more media speculation about the choices being made on this multi-million dollar movie.
And then there were the petitions and the letter-writing campaigns where fans are said to have pleaded with Warner Bros. to get rid of Keaton and change the course of the DC film – some reports say there were 50,000 letters written!
The role of Batman is so huge now, as is Keaton’s part in making the character the big-screen legend that he is, that it’s hard to conceptualize today what a shock his casting was in 1988. But at the time, the actor was mostly known for his comedic roles like Mr. Mom.
Of course, the echos of Tim Burton’s Batman still influence the superhero movie genre to this day, even as Keaton himself returns to the role for The Flash some 31 years after being away. But it’s easy to forget now that when he first donned the cowl and eyeliner, there were a ton of fans who couldn’t handle the notion of Mr. Mom, Beetlejuice, the Clean and Sober guy, and so on playing Batman. And for better or worse, it would be a trend that would continue with pretty much every Batman since, from Christian Bale to Ben Affleck to Robert Pattinson (and even Val Kilmer and George Clooney if you dig deep enough).
So let’s look back at the inauspicious debut of Michael Keaton’s Batman, and how his Dark Knight would go on to soar all the same, paving the way for the big-screen dominance of the character ever since.
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