The first significant shot of Michael Keaton that isn’t included in the full trailer seemingly depicts a long-haired Bruce Wayne from behind as he opens a secret entrance to the Batcave hidden behind a bookshelf. The only other glimpse of this moment comes in the full trailer, which features a close-up shot of Keaton’s Bruce reaching toward a photo of his parents on the wall next to the aforementioned shelves. Interestingly, his hands are bruised, suggesting he might be engaged in some vigilante work despite being retired.
We already know that Keaton’s Batman is inactive when Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen finds him in “The Flash,” as the official synopsis states: “There are no Super Heroes to turn to. That is, unless Barry can coax a very different Batman out of retirement.” But just how long has Batman been out of action? There are no concrete details in the trailer, but Bruce’s long hair and the shot of Allen pulling a tarp off the classic ’89 Batmobile, suggest it’s been a while. Whatever the answer, he obviously had quite the career before hanging up the cape, as the next shot in the Super Bowl spot appears to reveal.
One of the most memorable sequences from 1989’s “Batman” is a suiting up montage that shows Keaton donning the rubber outfit and peering into the abyss. Then, in “Returns” he’s shown walking into a vault with multiple suits and pulling one from a rack of duplicates. In the Super Bowl spot for “The Flash,” he’s clearly amassed a much larger collection. Not only that, the suits shown off in the teaser seem to tell the story of Keaton’s Batman, from inception to his team-up with Barry Allen.