They got Affleck, they got Keaton, so you have to wonder about Clooney. Next year, DC is expanding its very own multiverse in The Flash, Andy Muschietti’s story about Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), which will feature not only the debut of Supergirl (Sasha Calle), but a pair of Batmen played by some familiar faces: Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck.
Keaton played the role from 1989-1992 while Affleck played it from 2016-2021. Roughly. In between though, the cape and cowl were also donned by Val Kilmer in 1995’s Batman Forever and George Clooney in 1997’s Batman and Robin. Kilmer’s health certainly took him out of the running, but Clooney is still making movies. Surely fans were curious if he could be appearing along with his fellow Batmen.
“They didn’t ask me,” Clooney told Variety this week. “When you destroy a franchise the way I did, usually they look the other way when The Flash comes by.” Clooney was promoting his latest drama, The Tender Bar, which also stars Affleck. And while it’s unclear if the two talked about playing the Caped Crusader, there’s one person Clooney definitely doesn’t talk about that with: his wife, Amal. “He won’t let me watch it,” she said of the film; Clooney then added, “There are certain films I just go, ‘I want my wife to have some respect for me.’” Clooney also said he’d probably let his kids watch it eventually, though he’d be bummed if they didn’t like it.
We don’t know exactly how both Batmen play into The Flash and even so, two seems more than sufficient to illustrate that different people, who are also the same superhero, exist across multiple universes. It would have been super awesome had Clooney been asked to return though—and, to be honest, while we tend to believe him here, even if he had been asked, he certainly couldn’t say.
The Flash, which also stars Kiersey Clemons, will be released in just over a year, on November 4, 2022.
G/O Media may get a commission
Wondering where our RSS feed went? You can pick the new up one here.