Is George Clooney returning as Batman?

With the DC Universe set to enter a new era, rumors had begun to swirl that George Clooney could reprise his role as Batman.

DC fans had begun to speculate over the past few days that Clooney would return to his previous role, following the announcement of the new Batman movie happening earlier this month.

However, on Saturday, the co-chief of DC shot down this rumor with a tweet. James Gunn responded to a fan who asked him if it was true that they are casting Clooney as the new main DCU Batman, to which he replied with a simple: “Absolutely not.”

That wasn’t all Gunn had to say about Batman. Shortly after, another fan tweeted asking if they would be using an actor who previously played Batman or a new actor. Gunn replied with, “New actor.”

Twitter speculation

That was all the director and co-chief shared about the new Batman. According to TMZ, the speculations started with a film journalist claiming the DC franchise wanted a familiar face for the latest reboot of Batman, suggesting, in a tweet, it could be Clooney, Val Kilmer, or Christian Bale.

Clooney’s Batman

Clooney only took on the role of Batman in one film, ‘Batman & Robin’, in 1997. The film is widely considered by fans to be one of the worst Batman films, with only a 12 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 3.75/10 on IMDb.

In comparison, Ben Affleck’s Batman in ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ reached a 6.4 on IMDb, and Christian Bale’s ‘The Dark Knight’ maintained a 9/10 rating on IMDb along with a 94 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

As well, both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton are set to reemerge in their previous Batman roles later this year in the upcoming ‘The Flash’ movie.

As for Clooney, his most recent work, ‘Ticket to Paradise’, which he starred in with Julia Roberts, was released in late October of 2022. Currently, he is working on an untitled thriller film written and directed by Marvel director Don Watts, which also stars Brad Pitt.