For good or ill, Man Of Steel has proved to be a pretty big hit. Big enough to justify the continued talk of a Justice League movie – that’s like The Avengers, but with DC characters. It’s not a major surprise that rumors swirled about Christopher Nolan spearheading the Justice League film, but for the most part those were recognized as pipe dreams. Now Christian Bale at least confirms that whatever happens with Justice League, he will not be Batman.
Bale coming back as Batman was a long shot anyway, but the star has pretty much said ‘nope, not going to happen’. Here’s what he told EW:
Chris [Nolan] always said he wanted to make it one film at a time. And we ended up sitting there looking at each other, saying ‘We’re about to make the third.’ We never really knew if we were going to get to be there, but if that was how it was going to be, this was where it should end as well…It’s a torch that should be handed from one actor to another. So I enjoy looking forward to what somebody else will come up with.
No big surprises there. The Batman trilogy pretty much stands on its own, so any related character arc would probably feel tacked on. Points to Bale for understanding that his run as Batman is over and being perfectly satisfied leaving the character behind.
The question that this raises is if Justice League will tie in with the end of The Dark Knight Rises, or if it will take place in a completely different timeline. Justice League seems prepared to do the reverse of The Avengers for at least some of its characters, beginning with the big team movie and then spinning off into standalone films. We already have Man of Steel, which will figure into Justice League, but what about Batman? Does this mean we’re going to have a whole new beginning of Batman films? Will Batman get plastic surgery?!
Man Of Steel screenwriter David Goyer has stated that the Justice League Bruce Wayne ‘would be a different Bruce Wayne from Chris’s Dark Knight trilogy.’ Christ. So there’s an outside chance of yet another reboot of Batman within the next ten years? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?
In any case, the Bale as Batman time has passed. Now we just have to wait and see who shall next put on the dark cowl for Justice League. How about that Lego guy? He was pretty cool.