For decades, Robin Williams was the effervescent personification of comedy in Hollywood, an ebullient comedian who was willing and able to use every tool available to get a laugh, whether it was wacky physical humor or whip-smart wordplay. He later turned to drama and won praise as a serious thespian, proving he was more than a one-trick pony. But throughout his career, Williams also seemed to hold an obsession with the world of Batman, and he was determined to play a villain from the Dark Knight’s rogues gallery on screen. Sadly, he never got that chance — but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
Even as far back as the 1980s, Williams wanted in on a role in what eventually became Tim Burton’s iconic “Batman” film, hoping to play the Joker. Years later, he was in line for the Riddler in “Batman Forever” (even after Michael Keaton refused to return to play Batman). And as late as 2005, Williams once again was campaigning for a role in the then-upcoming reboot film, “Batman Begins,” from director Christopher Nolan, whom he’d worked with on “Insomnia” a few years earlier.
“It happens, everyone has those stories,” Williams said in a 1993 interview with Take2MarkTVÂ when asked about getting passed over by Tim Burton for the role of the Joker. “Even Jack [Nicholson]’s been ripped off a couple of times,” he said. But Williams also said that there are times when studios will use interest in a role to convince a different actor to sign on. “Sometimes they use you as bait, they’ll say, ‘We’re sending it out to him,’ and you go for it, and then they give it to someone else.”
Read more: Every On-Screen Joker Ranked From Worst To Best
Joel Schumacher cost Robins Williams the role of the Riddler
Alan is surprised in Jumanji – Sony Pictures Releasing
Despite campaigning for multiple roles in multiple “Batman” films — from 1989 to 2005 — Robin Williams never got the chance to join the world of the Dark Knight. The closest he got, however, was in 1994, when he was apparently officially onboard to play the Riddler in Joel Schumacher’s threequel, “Batman Forever.” According to screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, Williams was also heavily involved in the story.
“I remember sort of this extraordinary day where Joel [Schumacher] sent me to San Francisco, and I spent the day in Robin’s kitchen … just talking about the Riddler,” Goldsman told The Playlist in 2023. “And he was like, genius is not the right word. It was as if … he had opened up his head and the universe would just talk into it. It was so beautiful and so kind.”
Unfortunately, it seems that creative differences left Williams on the outs, but it wasn’t Goldsman who got in the way. “Ultimately, [Robin] and Joel didn’t see eye to eye,” Goldsman acknowledged. In the end, the studio got an even hotter star, Jim Carrey, one of the most popular actors in the ’90s who was just coming off three blockbuster comedies: “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “The Mask,” and “Dumb and Dumber.” But while Williams and his fans may lament him losing out, it’s probably all for the best — “Batman Forever” was roasted by critics and fans and would have prevented him from starring in the action-comedy family classic “Jumanji,” which eventually became an unexpected blockbuster franchise.
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Read the original article on Looper.