10 Ridiculous Comic Book Castings (That Actually Totally Worked)

2. Michael Keaton - Batman (Batman & Batman Returns)

Why It Was Ridiculous: Before being cast as Batman, Michael Keaton was largely known for light comedy roles, and so his casting was a WTF very much exceeding the current Eisenberg situation: Keaton had virtually no experience playing an elemental character like Bats, and reportedly 50,000 pieces of hate mail were sent to Warner Bros in protest. At least Eisenberg has already played an eccentric billionaire. According to director Tim Burton, the worry was that they were going to repeat the campiness of the 1960s Adam West series rather than capture the true essence of the comic. The Result: To some, Keaton remains the best interpretation of Bruce Wayne, and even if you love Christian Bale's effort, Keaton's probably at #2. The actor turned a lot of heads with his surprisingly stoic, restrained performance, almost the ultimate example of when fans can be wrong, and producers can know far more than we could ever imagine.