Bill Murray explains why Ivan Reitman’s Batman film with Eddie Murphy never happened

Actor said it was partly down to ‘vanity’ that the film never went into production

Bill Murray has shed some light on why Ivan Reitman’s idea for a Batman film starring Murray and Eddie Murphy never materialised.

Prior to the 1989 release of Tim Burton’s Batman (starring Michael Keaton), Warner Bros had its sights set on the late Reitman to direct a film based on the DC Comics superhero.

Reitman had considered casting Murray as Batman with Murphy taking on the sidekick role of Robin.

Speaking to Yahoo! Entertainment, Murray opened up about the reasons why the film never happened.

He clarified that his potential casting was in the very early stages before the idea was scrapped.

Asked whether he had ever spoken to Reitman about it, Murray replied: “I talked to Eddie Murphy about it, and Eddie wanted to play Batman. That’s as far as that conversation went.”

Murray said that despite Murphy’s wishes to play the caped crusader, he would not have taken the role of Robin.

“I don’t want to be the Boy Wonder to anybody,” he said. “Maybe much earlier when I was a boy. But it was too late for that by the Eighties.

“Also, I couldn’t do the outfit. Eddie looks good in purple, and I look good in purple. In red and green, I look like one of Santa’s elves. There was just a lot of vanity involved in the production. It wasn’t gonna happen.”

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The idea for the film was discussed by Sam Hamm, the screenwriter for Batman (1989), in a 2005 DVD documentary titled Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight.

Murray later addressed the unmade film during an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2017. He said: “You know, I’ve heard that story, too… and God, I would have been an awesome Batman.”

Since its release last week, The Batman – which stars Robert Pattinson in the titular role – has garnered mostly favourable reviews.

“The Batman didn’t need nearly three hours to tell what is, at heart, the relatively simple story of its hero’s moral awakening,” writes The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey.

“But it’s a feat in itself that the film has its own voice and perspective, instead of coming across like the Frankensteined creation of every Bruce Wayne that came before.”

You can read The Independent’s four-star review of The Batman here.