When a popular character from another medium makes the jump to the big screen, the first question every fan has is the casting. Just who will be playing the iconic character? It’s far from uncommon for fans to be less than thrilled by the choice made to play heroes and villains, and that’s been the case for decades, even back when Michael Keaton was first chosen to play Batman.
When it was announced that Michael Keaton would play the lead in Tim Burton’s Batman, a lot of fans were confused. Keaton was mostly known for smaller comedies at the time, he had previously played the title role in Burton’s Beetlejuice. Today, Keaton is arguably the best live-action Batman ever, but Tim Burton tells GQ why he cast the actor back in the ‘80s. He explained…
I love Michael because he has a certain energy. That's why I wanted him to be in Batman, because you just look in his eyes and he seems intelligent, scary, crazy, everything all at once.
Intelligent, scary, and crazy, certainly fit the bill for the type of Batman that Michael Keaton plays, and fans responded. The movie would go on to become the highest-grossing film of 1989. It would spawn a franchise and arguably launch the comic book-focused cinema world we live in today. It’s hard to believe there was a time when people didn’t want Keaton in the role.
But that was very true. It's been reported that Warner Bros. received more than 50,000 letters from fans protesting Keaton's casting. The internet wasn’t a thing then but one can imagine the message boards and social media posts that would have been out there claiming what a bad decision this was. If 50,000 people cared enough to write a letter in the ‘80s there were likely many more people with similar feelings who didn’t publicly voice their displeasure. It's no wonder even Keaton wasn't so sure about playing Batman.
Keaton was far from the last person to take on a comic book movie role that people needed to be more sure about. Both Heath Ledger and Jared Leto were the focus of an outcry when they signed on to play The Joker in two different DC movies. The decision to cast Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in the first film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was something that director Jon Favreau had to fight for.
Not every controversial casting decision becomes as iconic as Michael Keaton’s Batman, but Tim Burton clearly knew exactly what he was doing. When Keaton returned to the role in The Flash, his role was the most popular, and the most praised, part of that movie. After returning to the role of Batman, Keaton, and Burton are now returning to their original collaboration. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is set for release next month.
