In two of the major superhero franchises, Michael Keaton has played roles. He played the crime-fighting Bruce Wayne/Batman in the Burtonverse movies over the course of his acting career, and in Spider-Man: Homecoming, he played the Marvel villain Vulture. The 70-year-old actor claims that despite having entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he has never actually seen a Marvel film.
With 29 films now in theatres and more on the way, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the most popular movie series. Despite how well-liked these movies are, Michael Keaton admitted to having never viewed a full Marvel film. The actor said, “I know people don’t believe this, that I’ve never seen an entire version of any of those movies — any Marvel movie, any other. And I don’t say that I don’t watch that because I’m highbrow — trust me! It’s not that. It’s just that there’s very little things I watch. I start watching something, and think it is great and I watch three episodes, but I have other shit to do!”
Given the length of many blockbusters, it seems reasonable that Michael Keaton hasn’t seen any of the Marvel movies. With Avengers: Endgame being the longest Marvel movie to date at over three hours, and Thor: Love and Thunder being one of the shortest, MCU adventures might seem like you are spending a whole night with the characters. To fit in time to watch these superhero movies, your schedule would undoubtedly need to be spaced out.
In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Michael Keaton made his Marvel debut as the evil Adrian Toomes, a.k.a. Vulture. The Oscar nominee claimed that Vulture was different from other supervillains in that you could identify with him somewhat and understand his motivations. His primary goal was to clean up devastated areas so that he could provide for his family by providing them with food, not to develop and weaponize Chitauri technology to sell on the black market or commit murder. Due to the effort, Marvel put into its movies, as well as the skilled cast and script, Keaton appreciated working with them. He claimed to have no idea how popular superhero movies would become when he initially played Batman in the late 1980s, according to Variety.
Even if Michael Keaton may not have seen every Marvel film in its entirety, we can still count on him to employ his acting skills to great use as a villain or a hero in the superhero genre.