How Old Michael Keaton’s Batman Is In The Flash Movie

Michael Keaton is finally returning as Batman in The Flash over thirty years after his last appearance. How old is Keaton’s Caped Crusader?

Michael Keaton returns in the latest trailer for The Flash as DC’s oldest Batman yet. In a trailer aired during the Superbowl, audiences got their best look yet at Ezra Miller’s long-delayed superhero film, which will be the first project to feature Michael Keaton’s Batman since 1992’s Batman Returns, dispelling rumors that the iconic character had been cut from the final film. The film sees the DCEU’s Flash travel to an alternate timeline where his mother is still alive, eventually running into several variant heroes, including Keaton’s Caped Crusader, who is well advanced in years by the time he appears in The Flash.

The Flash is DC’s most important upcoming film, as it is set to unveil the franchise’s new continuity following James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios takeover late last year. In the announcement for his new slate, entitled “Gods and Monsters,” Gunn confirmed that The Flash would reset portions of the DCEU, paving the way for the true beginning of the DCU with 2025’s Superman: Legacy. The time-traveling antics present in the film’s latest trailer show exactly how The Flash can reset portions of the timeline, while also allowing him to revisit the world of Batman (1989), the film that helped kickstart the modern age of DC movies.

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Michael Keaton’s Batman Will Be Around 64-Years-Old In The Flash Movie

During the events of The Flash, Michael Keaton’s Batman will be around 64 years old. Decades after Michael Keaton’s controversial Batman casting, his films have become some of the most beloved installments in the Batman pantheon, managing to stand the test of time as many other actors offered their own takes on the Caped Crusader. Now, Keaton’s Bruce Wayne returns in his sixties, evidently still prowling the streets of Gotham City even as he continues to advance in years. While Keaton himself is 71 years old, it appears as though his character is several years younger than he, as evidenced by several obscure details in the original Batman movies.

In Tim Burton’s first Batman film, Bruce Wayne remembers his parents’ deaths on the twentieth anniversary of their murder. Most depictions of Batman’s origin reveal that Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed when Bruce was around 10 years old. Batman‘s flashbacks tend to support this supposition, suggesting that Bruce Wayne is about 30 years old during the events of the first film and around 33 in Batman Returns. If The Flash takes place in 2023, its events would chronologically occur 31 years after the events of Keaton’s last appearance as Batman. This would make Michael Keaton’s version of Bruce Wayne around the age of 64 in the new film.

The Flash Will Make Michael Keaton DC’s Oldest Live-Action Batman

Michael Keaton’s upcoming appearance in The Flash will make him DC’s oldest live-action version of Batman ever put to screen. Of the many actors to portray Batman in live-action, none have been older than 50 years old at the time of their film’s release. Though, it should be acknowledged that Kevin Conroy was 64 when he played the Kingdom Come version of Batman in the Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” plot on television. Prior to Keaton’s return, Ben Affleck was the oldest live-action movie Batman, starring in several DCEU films beginning with 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, when he was in his early 40s. Affleck will be 50 years old at the time of The Flash‘s release, which will likely mark his final time portraying Batman in live-action.

In most cases, DC has skewed younger in its depictions of Batman. Val Kilmer, George Clooney, and Christian Bale were all in their 30s during their respective debuts as the Caped Crusader, making Keaton’s older Batman a standout in the character’s cinematic history. Keaton’s Batman return stands against Robert Pattinson’s ongoing The Batman franchise, which portrays a Bruce Wayne in his late 20s, though Pattinson himself was 34 at the time of the film’s release. Keaton’s return as an older Batman opens up new avenues of storytelling for the Caped Crusader, making The Flash an even more exciting installment in DC’s filmography.

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