Summary
Before his passing, legendary actor Ray Liotta revealed that he had the opportunity to playBatmanin Tim Burton’s 1989 film. Liotta didn’t think much of it, leading to him passing up the role, a decision he regretted.
Liotta, who passed away on July 02, 2025, explained that he could have been in the running for theBatmanrole but scoffed at the opportunity because superhero movies did not have much of a reputation at the time. Liotta added that, in hindsight, he wished he had chosen differently.
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Before his passing, Liotta toldDeadlinehe was not interested in playing Batman because of how well-received one of his first movies was at the time. “Something Wildcame out, so I was getting attention from that. My agent called me up and said, ‘Tim Burton would like to meet you. He’s doing a movie,Batman.’ There were never any superhero movies then. That was pretty much the first one,” Liotta recalled. “I said, ‘Are you f***ing nuts?Batman?!’ I’m going, ‘No, that’s stupid.’ Who was stupid?Iwas stupid because I didn’t know.”
Instead,the Batman role went to Michael Keaton, which at the time, was a controversial choice knowing that Keaton was best known for his comedic work. Fans had vehemently disagreed with his casting at the time. However, Keaton proved to be a quality choice for the role, as his portrayal of the reserved Bruce Wayne struck audiences by demonstrating how traumatized Wayne is because of his parents' death. Despite passing on the role, Liotta would have his biggest break as an actor the following year when he played Henry Hill inGoodfellas. There’s no telling if Liotta would have gotten the Batman role had he been interested.
But one can’t help but wonder how Liotta would have done in the Batman role. Liotta did a downright phenomenal job portraying someone who went from a happy-go-lucky aspiring gangster to an out-of-control, drug-addicted hot mess riddled with paranoia from both the mafia and law enforcement. Of course, playing Batman would have been an entirely different role from playing Hill. However, Liotta’s acting chops made his transformationall the more believable inGoodfellas, so portraying The Caped Crusader could have been in his wheelhouse.
A fair amount of Batman castings have been controversial. Remember when everyone laughed atBen Affleck being cast as the new one, only for him to be the best part of the disastrousBatman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice? It’s not like Robert Pattinson received universal approval once he was cast as the younger version of Batman. The character has been so endearing to fans for years that there will be questions no matter who has been cast. Affleck, Pattinson, and even Keaton had question marks that were eventually proven wrong. It is a shame that fans would never see what Liotta could have done with the role.
