Director reveals why Michael Keaton’s Batman was retired in the DCEU

Despite its discreet worldwide box office performance, which has become one of DC’s biggest failures, The Flash is an entertaining movie that shows us alternative realities of past events of the DCEU, relying on a number of cameos and characters beloved by fans. And one of them is practically one of its protagonists: Michael Keaton’s Batman. Now, the film’s director, Andy Muschietti, has revealed why said Batman retired from his activity as Gotham’s vigilante, bringing some more information to what is said in the movie, and that it has to do with crime no longer being a problem for his city. And it has to do with a very difficult situation involving Batman himself.

Andy Muschietti provides new information about The Flash

Thanks to the domestic digital release of The Flash and its extras, we know new details about the Warner Bros. and DC movie. In a deleted scene, the younger Barry explains to the present-day Barry why Batman decided to give up his vigilante activities after killing a criminal in front of the villain’s son. This scene would be a reflection of what he himself suffered as a child with the murder of the Wayne family, something that forced him to hang up his cape and mask.

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Andy Mushcietti himself wanted to expand on the theme: “I really wanted to defy people’s expectations of where Bruce Wayne would be thirty years later, and I also wanted to deepen the backstory if Bruce Wayne, as the story tells, has been retired for twenty-five years, what happened to him? I always said something should happen to Bruce Wayne to want to stop being Batman. And my idea was, he did something that goes against his code and killed a criminal in front of [the criminal’s] child—not knowingly, but he still did it,” the director explained.

Muschietti makes it clear that this is exactly what he suffered as a child when his parents were murdered: “So he just couldn’t cope with it, and that’s why he decided to shut off his other side, Batman. And he hasn’t been able to forgive himself. And now, the way we find him is a bit of like, the evolution of that journey. You know, he’s a tragic figure. He’s basically a character that is in search of redemption, but eventually finds a way to do it by helping Barry,” The Flash director concluded.

Source | The Direct