The late Ivan Reitman had an early movie concept that involved the two actors.

Eddie Murphy as Batman and Bill Murray as Robin? Yep, it nearly happened.

There's been a lot of revived buzz about the Caped Crusader this month, thanks to Robert Pattinson's fresh take on the comic book vigilante in 'The Batman'. With so many actors having already donned the iconic mask and hopped in their own unique version of The Bat Mobile, it seems there's another duo that we very nearly wondered at on screen.

The Eddie Murphy as Batman and Bill Murray as Robin concept came from 'Ghostbusters' director Ivan Reitman, who sadly passed away in February. According to Murray, who was recently interviewed by Yahoo, the director had been eyeing up the pair for a take that never ended up coming to fruition.

The concept was originally spoken about during the '80s, a time when Murphy's career was taking off due to the success of his franchises 'Beverly Hills Cop' and 'Coming To America'; Murray of course had 'Caddyshack', Reitman's 'Ghostbusters' and 'Scrooged' during the decade.

Murray said to the publication about his potential outing as the Boy Wonder: "I talked to Eddie Murphy about it, and Eddie wanted to play Batman. That’s as far as that conversation went."

Asked if he would have been happy to play Robin, Murray replied that he wasn't keen on the colouring of his superhero get-up: "I don’t wanna be the Boy Wonder to anybody. 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."

And there you have it - we nearly had another Batman (and older sidekick) rise up during the '80s. We're not sure it would have worked, but hey, it might not have been as bad as the actual 'Batman & Robin' with George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell (which has since become a cultural phenomenon).

The latest iteration of Gotham's Caped Crusader, 'The Batman', is in theatres now.