21 Batman Movies That Almost Happened

14. Tim Burton'€™s Batman 3

Batman Forever wasn't as terrible as some might have you believe, but it would surely have been a lot better to have Tim Burton still in charge of a third film rather than bringing in Joel Schumacher with his luminous felt-tips and crotch obsession.

Initially, Burton was attached for a trilogy, and initially envisaged a threequel that had Two-Face (Billy Dee Williams) as the main villain - though a major script change, and the introduction of Max Shreck in Batman Returns meant that would have been abandoned. Unfortunately for Burton, Warner Bros. wanted a more kiddie friendly movie, and were somewhat shocked by the darkness of Returns, and lost faith in his ability to do it, so moved him quietly to a producer role.

It was Burton who had The Riddler as a key villain, and he too who had decided to introduce Robin belatedly, as well as Chase Meridian, but Two-Face was by then dropped, and Robin was intended to be African American (and played by Marlon Wayans, who was paid off). The decision to move Burton cost Warners their Batman, as Keaton snubbed a massive $15million contract thanks to his dissatisfaction with Schumacher's vision.

Quite why Warners saw the financial returns of Batman Returns as a reason to move Burton is baffling, but as Schumacher later confirmed, the idea was to toyify the franchise and sweep up the merch market, and Burton's vision didn't sit well with that.