The unmade ‘Batman’ movie that could have starred Clint Eastwood
As one of the most recognisable figures in popular culture, Batman will remain in a constant state of reinvention and rebooting to maintain the iconic superhero’s presence on the big screen, but one cursed adaptation that initially had Clint Eastwood in its sights still hasn’t escaped from development hell.
In the post-Batman & Robin landscape, Warner Bros needed to breathe new life into its stagnant flagship comic book franchise, but in a way that distanced itself as far away from Joel Schumacher’s disaster as possible. It would take eight years for Christopher Nolan to realise that ambition, but one tantalising project was announced in the interim.
The animated series Batman Beyond takes place in a futuristic, neon-drenched version of Gotham City, where an ageing Bruce Wayne has been forced to retire from a life of fighting crime. Fortunately, he ends up taking the young Terry McGinnis under his wing and adopting him as a protégé, kitting him out with the latest technology to take on the mantle of the ‘Dark Knight’.
In August 2000, the studio announced that Boaz Yakin would co-write and direct a live-action adaptation of Batman Beyond. The Los Angeles Times revealed that not only “what Yakin had in mind was a futuristic Blade Runner-type Batman,” but “his dream casting had Clint Eastwood playing the former Dark Knight”.
The grizzled icon playing a veteran Batman is about as tantalising as what-if casting gets. Still, by August 2001, that dream fizzled out when the project was officially shelved in favour of Darren Aronofsky’s Year One, which was itself canned prior to Nolan boarding what eventually became Batman Begins.
Two decades later, Batman Beyond once more reared its head, with director Patrick Harpin and production designer Yuhki Demers pitching an animated version of the movie that would take its cues from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. However, according to the latter, “They warned us ‘there is absolutely no way we can do a Beyond movie’, but they loved our enthusiasm.”
At the same time, Michael Keaton’s return as the ‘Dark Knight’ led to renewed speculation that a live-action Batman Beyond was back on the table, what with Tim Burton’s leading man being the perfect age to fill the role of a retired nocturnal vigilante.
With Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, Keaton, and Robert Pattinson having all played the character in a little over a decade, and with James Gunn developing yet another fresh take as part of his DC Studios overhaul, an argument can be made that there’s such a thing as too much Batman. That being said, the prospect of Eastwood taking on the role would have been quite the thing to see, even if Batman Beyond shows no signs of materialising over 20 years on from the initial announcement.
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