What if Tim Burton wasn't ousted after Batman Returns?

Was he ousted? He was a producer for 3.


He absolutely should have made the rest.

That would have most likely been much better. Would have been interesting to see how he would have handled the villains.

It would have been great had he helmed Batman Forever along with Batman & Robin.

Batman Returns is my favorite 'super hero' film period.

Definitely would have been better than Schumacher's mess.

His vision of Batman and Gotham had the right kind of artistic/visual tone to them. It's exactly how most people envisioned Batman to be in a live-action environment.

Danny Elfman's soundtracks were (and still are) timeless accompaniments to the aesthetic composition of Burton's work. It all gels. It looks and sounds fantastic.

A third film by Burton would have been very interesting to see, and I would have been 100% on-board with whatever his take on the franchise was supposed to be moving forward after Batman Returns. I get the feeling Burton would have tackled Mr. Freeze next instead of it being a Two-Face/Riddler team-up. Burton also put a lot more time into showcasing the character work of the villains compared to Schumacher, which makes all the difference in the world when caring about the hero/villain dynamic.

As they say in pro-wrestling, no one cares about the babyface if they don't first learn to love to hate the villain.

Burton doing mr freeze would have been great. Everytime i watch returns , i think about how well freeze would have fit in to that environment

We definitely would had seen either Scarecrow or Mad Hatter as the villains.

Had a Burton done a few more movies in the series here’s who I would cast as villains

-Edward Nygma/The Riddler: Robin Williams
-Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze: Patrick Stewart
-Harley Quinn: either Madonna or Helena Bonham Carter
-Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow: either Jeff Goldblum or Johnny Depp could do. Brad Dourif was rumoured to have been Burton’s choice for the role
-Ra’s Al Ghul: Christopher Lee
-Jervis Tech/Mad Hatter: Either Martin Short or Mike Myers
-Poison Ivy: Geena Davis
-Bane: Kevin Nash
-Thomas Elliot/Hush: Liam Neeson
-Arnold Wesker/The Ventriloquist: John Lithgow
-Scraface: Joe Pesci

Other characters
-Dick Grayson/Robin: Burton had intended on Marlon Wayans in the role, but personally I didn’t mind Chris O’Donnell in the role. Other names I could suggest who were also considered, Mark Wahlberg, Scott Speedman, Ethan Hawke (was actually considered to replace Keaton as Batman, but could have been a better fit for Grayson), Leonardo DiCaprio, Ricky Addison Reed (who was cast in the role in Batman ‘89, but was cut) or Mike Vitar, who could grow into the role.
-Barbara Gordon/Batgirl: the only suggestion I have is Winona Ryder

-Lucius Fox: for older I would go with Louis Gossett Jr, James Earl Jones or John Amos. For younger maybe Giancarlo Esposito and make the character a childhood friend of Wayne’s who helps him with supplying the equipment, something that was never touched upon in the movies.

If you look at the hugely flawed Batman Forever there's definitely some dark stuff in there under the ridiculous stuff that would've been right up Burton's street.

Grayson's family's death at the circus, and Batman's nightmares for instance. Two-Face and The Riddler would've been much better under his direction too.

I never liked the Gotham universe of the Joel Schumacher films. It looked awful. I can't understand why they moved so far away from Tim Burton's vision of it just because he wasn't directing.

Burton's vision of Gotham is still my favourite, and you can see it's influence on the Batman animated series, and even on Christopher Nolan on Batman Begins.