In a brand new featurette that goes behind the scenes of Batman’s return in “The Flash,” director Andy Mischietti had this to say:
“I actually needed to defy individuals’s expectations of the place Bruce Wayne could be 30 years later. And I additionally needed to deepen the backstory of Bruce Wayne. If Bruce Wayne, because the story tells, has been retired 25 years, what occurred to him? I at all times mentioned one thing ought to have occurred to Bruce Wayne to [make him] need to cease being Batman. My thought was that he did one thing that goes in opposition to his code. He killed a legal in entrance of his baby. Unknowingly, however he nonetheless did it, which is an actual mirroring of what occurred to him when his mother and father had been killed in entrance of him at Monarch Theatre, and that created that ‘monster’ that Batman is.”
Whoa, Batman’s mother and father had been killed in entrance of him? We had no thought! Not a single Batman film has ever explored the explanation that Bruce Wayne grew to become Batman. In all seriousness, having a Batman who broke his personal guidelines by killing a legal and studying that their baby noticed all of it occur? That is fairly darkish, and that is a element we want would have been included in “The Flash.” As a result of as nice as Michael Keaton’s return as Batman is, there’s not an emotionally resonant motive that makes us care about Bruce Wayne being retired, and it undercuts the character’s position within the story slightly bit. Muschietti elaborated a bit extra on the place Batman is at this cut-off date:
“So he simply could not deal with it, and that is why he determined to close off his different facet, Batman. And he hasn’t been capable of forgive himself, and now the way in which we discover him is a little bit of the evolution of that journey. He is a tragic determine. He is mainly a personality that’s seeking redemption, however ultimately finds a method to do it by serving to Barry.”