Was Bill Murray Going To Be Batman In The 1980s?

Bill Murray’s star was certainly shining brightly in the 1980s. Ghostbusters, which was released in 1984, had made him one of Hollywood’s most bankable actors. The sequel to the fantasy-comedy and 1988’s Scrooged remain some of the decade’s most popular comedy movies. They’re also indicative of the fact Murray was in hot demand.

That demand saw him briefly considering the role of Batman in a movie adaptation of the iconic DC superhero. But as Murray recently discussed in an interview with Yahoo, any ideas about playing the Caped Crusader were swiftly shelved and the film never got any further than a conversation between Murray and its other potential star, Eddie Murphy.

It’s the Batman movie that never was. A vehicle Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman wanted to make with executive producer Michael Uslan who has produced every Batman film since he acquired the rights in 1979. Uslan confirmed both Murray and Murphy were considered for roles but one issue regarded both men wanting to be the lead. Evidently, the film was to feature both Batman and Robin with one of the actors demoted to the supporting character.

Can you imagine Bill Murray as Batman?

“I talked to Eddie Murphy about it, and Eddie wanted to play Batman,” Murray said when speaking to Yahoo. “That’s as far as that conversation went.”

Murray wanted to be the bat. “I don’t wanna be the Boy Wonder to anybody,” the Ghostbusters star said. “Maybe much earlier when I was a boy. But it was too late for that by the ’80s.

“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.”

So, it’s true, Bill Murray could have been Batman before Michael Keaton donned the costume and began protecting Gotham City in Tim Burton’s 1989 film. But the movie – at least the one with Murray and Murphy – never got passed the conversation stage. Instead, Uslan pursued other opportunities and the rest, as they say, is history.

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