Val Kilmer Confirms His Desire to Play the Iconic Batman Character Again

Marvel’s Multiverse coming into being leaves the doors open for new potential stories and the possibility to bring back actors from any or every popular superhero franchise that has ever been a part of this in Hollywood’s history. Val Kilmer is one of them and has shown his desire to be suited up as Batman for one more time.

Kilmer, who just a while back reprised the role as Iceman in the massively successful Top Gun: Maverick, joins the list of a few actors who ever got the chance to enact the role of Batman, one of the most iconic characters in comic book history. 

Batman is one of the most widely popular characters from DC Comics, and one that has been re-created time and again. The Dark Knight became one of the highest grossing films of Warner Bros. among their several superhero titles. Batman itself has a cult following and several A-list Hollywood stars have iterated the portrayal of the character on the big screen. Michael Keaton, Robert Pattinson, and Ben Affleck, all are currently playing the role of Batman for different franchises, with Kilmer officially deciding to jump on the bandwagon for a celebrated return to the screen. 

Twenty-five years after the release of Batman Forever, back in 2020, Val Kilmer expressed that he pulled the plug on playing Batman because he thought that it didn’t matter for the character who was donning the superhero costume. After a year of playing Batman, Kilmer stated and tagged playing Batman as being “so isolating,” yet clearly he has not shut the doors on returning as Batman entirely. 

Meanwhile, as Batman Forever was only a modest hit at the box office at that time, by only collecting $336 million dollars from around the world, Kilmer did not get to return as the Batman for Batman & Robin.

In a recent talk with IGN Jim Vejvoda, Val was directly asked about his Batman role and if he would like to reprise the Batman character in a cameo or any other capacity. Kilmer seems to be game to taking the Batman role on again if given the chance, simply saying, “Yea please.”

IGN: We're seeing so many films now get a sequel years later. Are there any of your other early films you'd love to see a follow-up to?

VAL: HEAT would be fun. I love Michael Mann. We get along great and we have a great deal of trust… pic.twitter.com/Za01lb8lDw

— Jim Vejvoda (@JimVejvoda) August 23, 2022

IGN: Specifically, we now have multiple universes in comic book movies where actors who've played Batman or Spider-Man in the past team up with the current actor playing the role. Would you have any interest in playing Batman/Bruce Wayne again even in a cameo?

VAL: Yea please pic.twitter.com/GtYgJjj9Wh

— Jim Vejvoda (@JimVejvoda) August 23, 2022

Having a desire to return as Batman is really not something that every other actor wants who has portrayed Bruce Wayne. There is a Batman alum who doesn’t see any need to ever revisit the DC Comics gig and reprise the role of Batman, that is George Clooney. 

“I feel like Batman died with me, as you can imagine, don’t you guys feel the same way? Let me just point this out, I wore a rubber suit and giant rubber nipples, and I still have a career,” Clooney told ComicBook back in 2017. 

Are you a fan of Val Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne? Do you want to see Val suited up as Batman one more time or not? Share with us!

Then we have Christian Bale, The Dark Knight trilogy protagonist, who said that he will only want to return to the Batman franchise under one term. “Nobody reaches out to me or they keep me like a mushroom, keep me in the dark and feed me sh-t,” Bale said to ComicBook in July 2022. 

He further added, “For me, that would be a matter of Chris Nolan, if he ever decided to do it again and if he chose to come my way again, then yeah, I would consider it because that was always our pact between each other is we would just stick to it. We said we would only ever make three. And then I said to myself, and I’d only ever make it with Chris.”

Val took on the role of Batman back in 1995 in “Batman Forever”. The movie however was not able to score a sequel with Kilmer reprising the Batman’s character. Even though it is unclear right now what the future holds for the DC movies, the Multiverse perspective does not seem to be vanishing away any time soon. So, there we may find a reality in which Val Kilmer is stuck with the Batman film franchise for one more entry to say the least. This leaves out the possibility for Kilmer’s Batman to make an appearance in some cameo role as Batman is wide open.

One more thing for the Kilmer and Tom Cruise fans, Top Gun: Maverick is now available for digital downloads.