Did Elseworlds Base Its Batman On The Dark Knight Trilogy’s Version?

Now that Batman has been confirmed to exist in the Arrowverse – and on both Earth-1 and Earth-38, no less – it’s mighty difficult to avoid imagining what he might look like in your head. Furthermore, pondering his history is something else that’ll no doubt pick at us long after the “Elseworlds” crossover ends.

Actually, we often wonder similar things about the path Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman has walked, but he’s much more tangible. Plus, there’s also the reality that even after being treated to a crap-ton of Easter eggs last night, the Caped Crusader is still unfortunately off limits for The CW.

As such, we’re forced to fill in blanks, and it’s not insane to think the producers used one of the more popular versions of the character for a blueprint. In fact, I’d go as far to say that if you’d like to picture Christian Bale’s Batman from The Dark Knight Trilogy, then go right ahead.

The reason I say that is because not only did we see a mask known to have been worn by Tom Hardy’s Bane in Arkham Asylum, but also because both Batman and Bruce Wayne have been missing for the past three years in the Arrowverse, according to his own cousin, Kate Kane. Given that, wouldn’t you say the ending to The Dark Knight Rises could’ve served as some inspiration?

Then again, there are things that’d contradict that iteration of the character’s existence because no movie directed by Christopher Nolan featured villains like the Riddler, Penguin or Mr. Freeze – and we learned that each most definitely live on Earth-1 last night. Plus, there’s also the fact that Arrow has already been home to its own interpretations of Ra’s al Ghul and Talia.

Taking all that into account, I think we can conclude the Arrowverse’s Batman being highly similar to that of Bale’s, but their paths diverged at varying points. Still, I think his classic rogues could very well show up on Batwoman’s prospective TV series next fall, especially since it debuts after Gotham concludes.

“Elseworlds” wraps up tonight on Supergirl on The CW.