Michael Keaton addresses Batgirl getting shelved

Dim the Bat-Signal: Michael Keaton wasn’t too bothered by Batgirl‘s unceremonious shelving.

The actor had been set to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne in Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi’s unreleased film starring Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl before Warner Bros. decided to pull the plug. When asked about the move in a new cover interview for GQ, Keaton conceded he wasn’t too disappointed. “I didn’t care one way or another,” he said. “Big, fun, nice check.”

Of course he felt “very badly” for his filmmakers, adding, “I like those boys. They’re nice guys. I pull for them. I want them to succeed, and I think they felt very badly, and that made me feel bad. Me? I’m good.”

Keaton made his debut as Batman/Bruce Wayne in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film and reprised his role in Ezra Miller’s controversial The Flash in 2023. His initial casting in Burton’s iteration was a controversial choice at the time since he was primarily known for his comedic roles, including Burton’s Beetlejuice.

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He’s now considered one of the best Batmen, and “Tim deserves enormous credit” for that, Keaton told GQ. “He changed everything. I can’t necessarily say this, but there’s a strong possibility there is no Marvel Universe, there is no DC Universe, without Tim Burton. He was doubted and questioned.”

Though filming was nearly completed, Warner Bros. abruptly pulled Batgirl from the release schedule back in 2022 due to supposed cost-cutting measures. It was also set to star J.K. Simmons as Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon and Brendan Fraser as the film’s antagonist Firefly. There are no plans for the film to be released.

DC Studios bosses Peter Safran and James Gunn have stood by the decision, stating at a press event last year that the “film was not releasable.” Safran told reporters, “It happens sometimes. That film was not releasable. I actually think that [president and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved.”

Fallah and El Arbi have called the shelving  the “biggest disappointment of our careers,” also sharing that they have no footage of their film due to the studio’s blocked servers. “We have nothing,” Fallah previously revealed. “Adil called me and said, ‘Go ahead shoot some things on your cellphone.’ I went on the server and everything was blocked.” 

Keaton will next reprise his role as the devious “bio-exorcist” in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, out Sept. 6