Michael Keaton Shares Impassioned Belief That One Person is Responsible for the Success of Modern Superhero Movies

“He changed everything” where superhero films are concerned, and it’s all because of Batman (1989). Before being conjured up to reappear on the big screen in Beetlejuice’s long-awaited sequel, the actor behind the ghost with the most, Michael Keaton, joined Beetlejuice Beetlejuice co-star Winona Ryder on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to honor their director Tim Burton, as he finally received his well-deserved star. And during Keaton’s speech, the thespian gave Burton all the credit where the success of today’s superhero films is concerned. Keaton said (per Variety):

“I just want to finish here in a minute by talking about the whole Batman thing
[…] What that spawned:
There are a lot of people making a lot of money out there with their superhero movies because of his choice and his vision, because he changed everything.
I’ve said it a hundred times, but it’s true.
The man is a genre unto himself.”

Keaton, who reprised the role of the Dark Knight/Bruce Wayne in Batman Returns (1992) and The Flash (2023), vividly recalls Burton approaching him to do the role after their collaboration in 1988’s Beetlejuice over 35 years ago. Keaton said during the same speech:

“He hands me a script and says, ‘Please read this and tell me what you think.’
Now, this is after Beetlejuice.
After that performance, after that type of movie, and he says to the studio, ‘I want that guy.’
And I’ll never to this day understand this — why anyone even cared [that Keaton played Batman].
But the uproar… you would’ve thought we were being invaded. It was unbelievable.
The press went crazy.
But he stuck by me.
And the guts it took to stand by that decision will always be special to me, obviously.”

PC or Not, the Juice Is Loose Again

Now that Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder have honored their friend and collaborator, Tim Burton, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the press tour for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice continues. And during his many interviews promoting the ghost with the most’s return, Keaton addressed the modern-day PC nature of the supernatural sequel’s titular character. The actor said in an interview with GQ:

“As for the character himself, there was not a ton of updating to be done there.
Beetlejuice, debauched sicko in 1988, remains a debauched sicko in our more enlightened era.
He’s a thing. He’s more of a thing than a he or a she, he’s more of an it.
And I’m not saying ‘it’ to be politically correct.

I just viewed it as a force more than anything.
I mean, there’s definitely strong male energy, like stupid male energy, which I love.
You don’t want to touch that because it’s not like you go
, ‘Well, it’s a new year and this thing would now act like that.’”

Fans should soak it all in when the long-awaited follow-up to the 1988 classic finally drops in theaters this Friday. It took 36 years for Keaton, Burton, Ryder and Catherine O’Hara to all reunite, and, according to the director, the odds of a third installment are very long indeed. Burton said of possibly making Beetlejuice 3: “Well, if [the same] time frame goes on, I’ll be about 100. So maybe. I doubt it.”