Michael Keaton Reveals His Return As Vulture In A Secret Marvel Movie
Michael Keaton is back as the Vulture, but for what?
This article is more than 2 years old
These days must feel at least a little funny to Michael Keaton. Decades after last playing Batman in 1992’s Batman Returns, and Keaton is busier in superhero movies than ever. Not only is he reprising the role of Batman in both The Flash and HBO Max’s upcoming Batgirl, but he’ll be appearing as Adrian Toomes aka the Vulture in this April’s Morbius. But apparently, Keaton still isn’t done playing the Vulture, though he’s being tight-lipped about whatever it is he’s working on.
Michael Keaton made the reveal himself this past weekend. The actor posted a photo to his Instagram with the caption, “Little A Toomes work today.” You can see the post below.
Some have speculated that Michael Keaton is referring to reshoots for Morbius. Back in December, Keaton made mention of Vulture work he was doing, which most took to mean Morbius reshoots. However, considering the vampire anti-hero film is finally a month away from release, it would seem way too late for any reshoots at this point.
Another possibility, and arguably a much more likely one, is that Michael Keaton will be appearing in the upcoming Kraven the Hunter film starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the titular protagonist. News about Kraven has been picking up recently, including the reported castings of Fred Hechinger as the Chameleon and Russell Crowe as Kraven’s father. More importantly, as reported by Movie Web, rumors have been brewing that Kraven would begin filming in February. It could very well be that Sony is using Keaton to be for its emerging Spider-Verse what Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson was for Phase 1 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Speaking of the MCU, it brings up more possibilities. With Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness two months away and everyone from Patrick Stewart to Tom Cruise to Bruce Campbell and more rumored to be appearing in the flick as variant heroes, villains, and everything in-between, could Michael Keaton be referring to work on that film? On one hand, reshoots so close to the release don’t seem much more likely than they do for Morbius. On another hand, they may be necessary because of a big discrepancy that’s arisen since last year’s release of Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Because of his shift from his reality to that of the MCU, we know that Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock/Venom does not operate in the same universe as Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. At the same time, because of Morbius’ Venom reference in one of the film’s trailers, we know that Morbius and Venom do exist in the same timeline. What does all this mean? Well, presumably it means Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes should not be in the same universe as Morbius, since we know he’s a part of the MCU.
So, while it’s only speculation, it could be that Michael Keaton is filming a post credits scene or something along those lines for either Morbius or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to explain the apparent discrepancy. Or, it could be that something will happen to the fabric of the Multiverse in the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel that explains the discrepancy. Of course, with all the upcoming Marvel content we do and don’t know about it, the possibilities are just about endless. When we know, you’ll know.
