I knew it was bound to happen, Saturday Night Live host, Michael Keaton returning to his Batman and Beetlejuice roles, but as early as the monologue? Consider yourself blessed. In the Saturday Night Live monologue, cast members Bobby Moynihan and Taran Killam serenaded host Keaton in hopes of convincing him to play Batman or Beetlejuice with them. And although Keaton pretended to be completely against reviving his legendary roles, he certainly found the courage by the end of the monologue, and yes, it was amazing.
When Moynihan and Killam first asked for Keaton to play Batman and Beetlejuice, he acted like it was some huge inconvenience. I get it, he's probably asked every single day to recite, "I'm Batman," but give the people what they want Keaton! We want Batman! We want Beetlejuice! We'll take Birdman (but if the first two are available, we really want those.)
The response that Moynihan and Killam received is probably a fan's worst nightmare. Batman saying, "No, I won't say I'm Batman," will crush any childhood. The two cast members even tried to sweet talk Keaton by explaining that it was Killam's birthday and Moynihan only had six weeks to live (based on the choices he's made), but Keaton remained stuck on not playing into the childhood dreams. Jay Pharoah also wanted in on the action, but even his Joker and Harry Belafonte costumes couldn't convince Keaton to utter those famous words.
But sometimes, you've just got to wear your heroes down, because finally Keaton broke down and said "I'm Batman," while throwing in "It's showtime," just like Beetlejuice, and suddenly every childhood dream came true. Maybe he wasn't happy about it — he was — and maybe he'll talk to Lorne Michaels about it — he probably will — but even if this causes Keaton to never want to return to the SNL stage, I can confidently say... worth it.
