Why James Gunn Added George Clooney's Batman To The Flash Movie

Many renowned actors have donned the caped crusader's iconic batsuit on the silver screen, including Robert Pattinson, (who's set to return for "The Batman 2"), Ben Affleck, and the late great Val Kilmer. Each actor — and director — has had a unique take on the role, from Christian Bale's buff, gravelly voiced superhero in Christopher Nolan's action-packed "Dark Knight" trilogy, to Michael Keaton's moodier, more serious take on the world's greatest detective in Tim Burton's gothic Batman films. Each big screen Batman adaptation is memorable in its own right — but not always for good reasons.

Released in 1997, and considered by critics to be the worst Batman movie of all time, Joel Schumacher's tongue-in-cheek "Batman & Robin" had — on paper — the ability to be a hit, with George Clooney stepping into the well-worn boots of Batman/Bruce Wayne, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger's diabolical Mr. Freeze and Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy. However, the film was so poorly received that Clooney — who admits he was "bad in it" — more than two decades later, finds it "physically" painful to watch.

Thus, it was surprising to see Clooney reprise his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman for a brief cameo at the end of 2023's "The Flash" — 26 years after hanging up the cape. Below, we break down how and why DC Studios executive James Gunn brought back Clooney for one of superhero cinema's most unexpected cameos.

In one of the final scenes of "The Flash," Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) is seen on the phone to Bruce Wayne outside. However, when Wayne pulls up and gets out of his car, it's not Ben Affleck playing him, but George Clooney. Barry then realizes he didn't fix the timeline quite as he thought.

This ending featuring Clooney was one of three created for the film, as a result of changing regimes at Warner Bros. Initially, "The Flash" began production under Warner Bros.' previous studio regime, and was to mark a reset for the DC cinematic universe, with the ending to feature Supergirl (Sasha Calle) and Michael Keaton's Batman. However, following Discovery's acquisition of Warner Bros. in April 2022, different executives were brought in to oversee the film instead. Under their leadership, a new ending was conceived, adding Superman (Henry Cavill) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) alongside Batman and Supergirl, as means of teasing planned DC projects.

But, in November 2022, James Gunn and Peter Safran were brought in to run DC Studios — who also had their own plans for the film. The pair scrapped the two previous endings — as their plans to reset the DC universe wouldn't necessarily deliver on the teased returns of Wonder Woman and Superman — but still wanted one that would convey that Barry hasn't fixed the timeline as he thought. With Keaton already in the film, there had been jokes about including Clooney, too. While it seemed like a long shot, they contacted Clooney's agent, showed him a cut of the almost-finished film, and miraculously, he agreed to participate.

Probably not. Following the release of "The Flash" in 2023, the Oscar-winner was asked by The Hollywood Reporter whether his appearance in the film was a one-off, or whether it opened the door to more work as the character. George Clooney confirmed the former. "Somehow there were not a lot of requests for me to reprise my role as Batman," he told THR. "I don't know why." Additionally, in February 2023, four months before "The Flash" was released, James Gunn shut down rumors that Clooney was the DCU's new Batman. In response to a fan asking on X, "Is it true you're casting George Clooney as the new main DCU Batman?," Gunn simply replied: "Absolutely not."

While "The Batman 2," starring Robert Pattinson, is set for a 2027 release, the film is part of Matt Reeves' standalone "The Batman Epic Crime Saga," which also encompasses HBO's "The Penguin" TV series. It's therefore not part of the DCU shared universe. However, DC Studios has confirmed it's working on a new DCU project titled "Batman: The Brave and the Bold," helmed by "The Flash" director Andy Muschietti. However, the actor playing Batman hasn't officially been confirmed yet, and we likely won't know more about the project for a while.

In response to a Threads user asking when fans can expect an update, Gunn said: "I'm dependent on when there's an actionable script ready, so there's no way of me guessing this. Also, frankly, we're well into "[The} Batman 2," and I wouldn't want to cloud the Batsphere until after that."