Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2001, Prince dropped a huge bomb: the Batman 1989 soundtrack was meant to be an exciting collaboration/duet between himself and Michael Jackson. “He as Batman, me as the Joker,” the Purple Rain star recalled. According to him, Michael Jackson would’ve handled the emotional hero ballads while he tackled the funk-heavy villain tracks. And it would have been the perfect fit, really, especially considering Jackson’s obsession with Batman. It also explains why Michael Jackson literally owned a giant statue of himself as Batman.
If you know a bit about the King of Pop, you’d know that he loved comic books and collecting memorabilia. Heck, he even tried to buy Marvel Comics in the ’90s, which he planned on turning into live-action movies. He even tried to get into superhero roles, and is rumored to have had an interest in playing Professor X in an X-Men film at some point. But Michael has a special love for Batman. And so did Prince.
After his death, the statue surfaced during a 2009 auction. The listing described it as a “Life-size limited-edition statue of Batman mounted to base,” standing 90 inches tall with a Batman & Robin plaque attached. The statue carried an estimated value between $800 and $1,200, which feels absurdly cheap for something that looks like it belongs inside his personal collection in a secret room at Neverland Ranch.
According to reports, Jackson was bitterly disappointed when he wasn’t able to work on Tim Burton’s Batman soundtrack due to commitments and the studio blocking him from the project at the time. Eventually, Prince, who was under Warner Bros. label, took over and delivered a full album for the film. To date, it is Prince’s most commercial work, and although there are some special songs on there, like “Batdance”, the album does feel like it could have been better with Michael Jackson on the love songs.
But the end of that project wasn’t the end of Michael’s obsession with Batman. In the early ’90s, Sony developed MidKnight for Jackson, a superhero film about a meek man transforming at midnight into a singing and dancing vigilante. It was heavily inspired by Batman, and even included the Tim Burton film’s producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber. Unfortunately, the project was eventually cancelled due to studio politics, personal tragedy, and Jackson’s growing controversies.
Somewhere in an alternate dimension, we got one of the biggest Batman soundtracks ever. Michael Jackson sang Gotham’s emotional anthems while Prince danced through the city as The Joker. Today, we only have this Michael Jackson as Batman statue left to remind us of what could be.
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