Michael Keaton is enjoying a Hollywood comeback, but he’s best known for his role as Batman.
He famously turned down a third Batman film in 1993. Val Kilmer would step in as Bruce Wayne for Batman Forever. George Clooney would take on the role in Batman & Robin.
In a new interview, the actor states he quit the series because the script for Batman Forever “sucked”. At first, he did stick around for a lot of meetings with the studio. During this time, Warner Brothers felt Tim Burton shouldn’t direct the third movie. Enter Joel Schumacher.
“I knew it was in trouble when he [Schumacher] said, ‘Why does everything have to be so dark?”, says Keaton.
According to CBS, he turned down $15 million to reprise the role for a third time. He describes Batman Forever as being “awful.”
Despite Keaton’s exit, he did play an actor who played a superhero in 2014’s Birdman. That role earned him an Oscar nomination. Keaton is returning to the superhero genre this summer. This time, he’ll be playing the Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
