Why’d Bruce Wayne Quit Being Batman?

It would appear that audiences didn’t, in actual fact, wish to get nuts. Despite the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman, DC Studios’ The Flash wound up as one in every of 2023’s largest field workplace disappointments. To date, the movie has grossed solely $107 million within the United States and $267 million worldwide. Barbie — from the identical studio, Warner Bros. — simply made more cash than that in its opening weekend alone. And The Flash reportedly price not less than $50 million greater than Barbie to provide.

We can debate the the reason why, however I believe one of many huge points was that whereas Keaton himself was terrific reprising his function as Batman, the character inside the movie didn’t make a ton of sense. The Flash alters the timeline, which ends up in the Ben Affleck Batman being worn out of existence, changed as an alternative by Michael Keaton’s Batman — not only a totally different actor, however a complete totally different era of actor. The the reason why are by no means totally clear.

On prime of that, Keaton’s Batman has lengthy since retired from his function as Dark Knight of Gotham City when the Flash finds him. Wayne Manor is mendacity in spoil. And when the Flash arrives there, Keaton’s Bruce Wayne is sort of a hermit; his hair is lengthy, he’s bought a beard, he’s dwelling alone. Why? What occurred?

The Flash doesn’t actually clarify. They point out that Gotham City is peaceable now, and apparently that left Batman with no function or one thing? Why doing a superb job destroy Batman’s life? That was not made clear — and inside a number of scenes, Bruce is again in his previous costume serving to the Flash, and there’s little or no time to dwell on character motivations after that.

A brand new featurette simply launched by Warner Bros. lastly explains the backstory that clearly bought minimize sooner or later in the course of the The Flash’s improvement course of. In the video beneath across the 3:00 mark, The Flash director Andy Muschietti particulars a complete unseen, unmentioned previous that was supposed to clarify Batman’s retirement.

Here is what Muschietti says:

I at all times mentioned one thing ought to have occurred to Bruce Wayne to wish to cease being Batman. And my thought was he did one thing that goes towards his code. He killed a legal in entrance of this baby. Unknowingly, however he nonetheless did it. Which is a precise mirroring state of affairs of what occurred to him when his dad and mom have been killed in entrance of the Monarch Theater, and that created that ‘monster’ that Batman is. And so he simply couldn’t address it, and that’s why he determined to close off his different aspect, Batman.

 

READ MORE: Every Batman Actor, Ranked From Worst to First

I don’t know why this was minimize from the movie. Maybe they didn’t wish to painting Batman as a killer. Maybe they felt the film was too lengthy and it wanted to be shortened, and this was one thing that was deemed superfluous. Maybe they realized that Michael Keaton’s Batman completely killed a complete bunch of men in Tim Burton’s Batman and he didn’t appear too choked up about it again then. (Remember how he blew up Axis Chemicals with all of the Joker’s goons inside?)

Whatever the rationale, none of Muschietti’s rationalization for Bruce Wayne’s hermit-like existence wound up in The Flash. It wouldn’t have solved the entire film’s issues, however it might have least defined this Batman a little bit bit higher. It’s a disgrace it was minimize out.

The Flash is accessible on Digital now; the 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD will all be out there on August 29.