Few franchises seemed to run through leading men as quickly as the Batman movies did in the 1990s. Three different actors played the Caped Crusader in the decade, beginning with Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's Batman Returns in 1992. After Burton left and Warner Bros. took the property in a more light-hearted direction, Keaton stepped down and was replaced by Val Kilmer for Batman Forever. However, despite being contracted to appear in at least two films, Killmer didn't come back for the follow-up, Batman & Robin, in 1997.

The explanation for why Kilmer didn't return for Batman & Robin has varied from year to year, depending on who's telling it. Batman & Robin director Joel Schumacher said as much when interviewed by EW in 1996, and claimed that Kilmer "sort of quit, we sort of fired him" after the actor clashed repeatedly with the production team during filming on Batman Forever. According to the outlet's source at the time, Kilmer quit Batman & Robin when he learned it was due to begin shooting less than a month after he'd be done working on The Saint. Rather than going through more trouble to accommodate him, Warner Bros. released him from his contract in response.

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Val Kilmer in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

In 2017, however, Schumacher told THR that the Batman Forever world tour "really went to [Kilmer's] head." He went on to claim the actor later wanted to work on the 1996 version of The Island of Dr. Moreau because Marlon Brando was starring in it, so he "dropped us at the eleventh hour." This also differed from the explanation Kilmer gave for not returning in the documentary series Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight in the 2005 Special Edition DVD of Batman & Robin. There, the actor said he didn't know Warner Bros. planned to start shooting Batman & Robin so soon after Batman Forever hit theaters, which led to the scheduling conflict with The Saint.

Finally, the story changed yet again in an interview Kilmer gave in May 2020. The actor asserted he had lost interest in playing the Caped Crusader after Warren Buffett and his grandkids came to visit the Batman Forever set but were far more interested in checking out the mask and Batmobile than meeting him. As Kilmer put it, he realized after that his performance didn't matter because “It’s not about Batman. There is no Batman.” Whatever the case may be, George Clooney replaced him and portrayed the Dark Knight in Batman & Robin.

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Batman & Robin would go on to become an infamous critical and commercial flop that killed Warner Bros.' plans for a sequel and left the franchise dead in the water until Christopher Nolan rebooted it with Batman Begins in 2005. Critics were particularly unimpressed with the movie's attempt to recapture the campy tone of Adam West's Batman and felt the writing was too witless for its own good. Clooney didn't exactly blow anyone away with his acting, either, and has gone on to make fun of his performance in the film many times.

Interestingly, before his death in June 2020, Schumacher claimed he felt Kilmer was the best Batman actor, despite the terrible experience he had working with him on Batman Forever. All the same, it's doubtful things would've gone a whole lot better for Batman & Robin if it had been Kilmer in the cowl.

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