Will Christian Bale And Christopher Nolan Return To The DC Comics Universe?
Warner Bros has been working hard to try and bring Justice League to the screen. Some would say that they’ve been trying too hard, while others might say not hard enough. The studio has been sitting back, watching Marvel reap praise (and serious box office coin) for a variety of superhero movies, while their DC characters have been (relatively) dormant.
Okay, so Superman is ready to take flight again in Man of Steel, but Batman, who has been busting blocks for the last decade has been put in cold storage following the billion dollar box office gross of The Dark Knight Rises. I think that it is best for all involved if we ignore the disaster that was The Green Lantern.
Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale have both stated that they are done with the Bat, and Nolan’s involvement in Man of Steel (on the surface, at least) seems like he is repaying Warner Bros for letting him bring his vision for Batman and Inception to the big screen. It feels like he’s done with men in tights, while Bale is now an (oh so serious) Oscar-winning actor.
Reports say that Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel is amazing – THE film to beat this summer and if it hits big then we will certainly be seeing much more of Henry Cavill as Superman. This puts Warner Bros in a very good position for making Justice League. Sure, they haven’t laid the ground work like Marvel did for The Avengers, but Warner Bros has a serious ace in the hole – The Dark Knight Trilogy.
This is where things get interesting. Very Interesting.
Latino Review is reporting that Warner Bros is offering Nolan, Bale and (writer) David Goyer a lot of money to return to Gotham City – virtually a blank cheque. If reports are true then Nolan would produce Justice League, (or maybe a Batman & Superman film), with Goyer scripting and Zack Snyder possibly directing, with Henry Cavill joining the gang as Superman!
If it’s true then it’s a fan-boy dream come true, but it leads to some questions. How would Nolan’s real-world Batman merge with Superman’s more fantastical aspects? However, more importantly, how would the end of The Dark Knight Rises fit into this proposed team-up tale? The end of Rises saw Bruce Wayne fake his own death, only to be replaced as Batman by Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character, John Balke. Initial reports even had Levitt taking on the role of Batman in Justice League – but it now looks like no Bruce Wayne means no Batman.
I can see Levitt’s Batman being killed off in the opening of any new film, forcing Bale’s Wayne out of retirement – like seminal Batman works, The Dark Knight Returns and A Death in the Family rolled into one.
Is any of this true?
There hasn’t been any official confirmation, but there hasn’t been a denial either.
Time will tell.
Source: Latino Review
