Ezra Miller’s The Flash is getting another Batman. Deadline reports that Ben Affleck will reprise his version of the character in the 2022 film in a cameo appearance, along with Michael Keaton, who’s also joining the film as his version of the caped crusader.
The news comes ahead of DC’s upcoming virtual fan convention, DC Fandome, in which we’re expecting to get some updates on a number of forthcoming DC projects, like Wonder Woman 1984 and The Batman. According to Deadline, Affleck’s appearance will be a cameo, whereas Keaton’s role will be a bit more substantial.
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Affleck first starred as Batman in the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and subsequently appeared briefly Suicide Squad and as a central character in the team-up film Justice League. Affleck was then scheduled to reprise is role in a solo Batman film that he would direct, but later stepped down from the project, saying that he couldn’t “crack” the story and problems with alcoholism. Since then, Matt Reeves has taken over the project with next year’s The Batman, with Robert Pattinson set to play the titular character.
The Flash will be tackling a comic storyline called Flashpoint, in which the character Barry Allen tries to undo the past, and ends up messing with multiple realities. Keaton reportedly came onboard the film earlier this summer as a way to explain that multiverse concept as the character encounters different versions of the people he knows.
This isn’t too unfamiliar to DC audiences: Last year’s Arrowverse crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths saw Miller pop up to encounter that franchise’s version of Barry Allen. Affleck’s appearance makes sense, given that he’s already in the same continuity as Miller’s character, but it does beg the question: Will DC also bring in Val Kilmer, George Clooney, or Christian Bale for cameo appearances as well?