Robert Pattinson. Christian Bale. Michael Keaton. Val Kilmer. Anyone who's anyone on the dark n' brooding Hollywood A-list has wanted to play the Caped Crusader at some point. The latest to declare for the mantle is Keanu Reeves, the one-time Matrix superstar… and he could be the most obvious candidate that no one yet has apparently considered. (Although, technically, he has already voiced a version of Batman, but more on that below.)
Interviewed by Extra for new animated kids' flick DC League of Super Pets, in which Reeves portrays a cartoonified Batman, he called the notion of playing Batman in a live-action movie a “dream,” continuing: “I love Batman, as a character… I love him in the comic books, in the films, so to get the opportunity to voice, to play Batman was awesome.” But now, at 57, you might think he's a touch too mature to stick on the Batsuit — but Keanu Reeves, as it's been chronicled, simply does not get older.
Seriously, Reeves is conscious that even he has some limitations in regards to age. “Maybe down the road,” he said, asked whether he thought he'd ever get the chance. “Maybe when they need an older Batman.”
Of course, Michael Keaton — who famously portrayed Batman in the dark n' dingy Tim Burton-directed duology — is coming back to the role in both The Flash and Batgirl, DC's upcoming instalments in their cinematic Extended Universe. So that role is very much fulfilled for the time being. But with all of the multiversal alternate universe malarkey overunning the gamut of blockbuster cinema in the present moment, there've gotta be some advantages. So why not give Keanu his chance at the wheel of the Batmobile?
Think about it: the guy has all of the quiet broodiness one would want from an older Bat-guy, plus the suave to slip into the glossy oxfords of a multi-billionaire philanthropist. Think of all the shit Keanu has seen across his multiple centuries, all of the angst and anger he keeps in his haggard eyes — think of how well that'd transfer to a septuagenarian Bruce Wayne who has simply seen enough.
Plus, y'know, Keanu has proven his physical Batman bona fides by way of the John Wick franchise, which is to say he knows how to beat the shit out of a bad guy or two. He doesn't need batguns, batrockets, batgrenades, or bat-whatevers — this guy has his iron fuckin' fists. He has “vengeance” tattooed on his goddamn V-line.
Not to get toooooo carried away, but we love this idea, and now it's in the ether, it's far too obvious not to follow through. If Keanu isn't Batman within the next decade, it can be indicative of only one thing: the world is falling apart, the centre can no longer hold, the fabric of reality is being torn asunder by forces we cannot comprehend.
And do you want the end of the world on your hands, D.C.? We think not.
