Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy wrapped up a decade ago, but Christian Bale says he’d be willing to don the cowl again if the circumstances are right. Speaking with Screen Rant, Christian Bale said that he would be willing to return to the DC universe as his iconic version of Batman if Christopher Nolan himself was interested in continuing that story.
“I had a pact with Chris Nolan,” Bale says. “We said, ‘Hey, look. Let’s make three films, if we’re lucky enough to get to do that. And then let’s walk away. Let’s not linger too long.’ In my mind, it would be something if Chris Nolan ever said to himself, ‘You know what(?) I’ve got another story to tell.’ And if he wished to tell that story with me, I’d be in.”
The Dark Knight trilogy left Bale’s interpretation of Bruce Wayne alive but in hiding, so there is definitely some room for the story to continue. Although, DC and Warner Bros. are currently in the midst of making many other superhero movies. While The Flash, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and Wonder Woman 3 seek to continue DC’s rocky take on a Marvel-like cinematic universe, an entirely new Batman movie saga kicked off with Robert Pattinson earlier this year. Joker 2 is also in development (as a musical targeting Lady Gaga, apparently), complicating things even further. However, since these films exist in a multiverse, this doesn’t prevent Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan from coming back for more Batman later anyway.
Meanwhile, Nolan himself is still hard at work on his star-studded next film, Oppenheimer, and Bale will return to audiences next week as Gorr the God Butcher in Marvel’s latest cinematic universe entry, Thor: Love and Thunder. Suffice to say, many pieces need to fall into place if we are to see another chapter in Nolan’s Dark Knight universe.
Most fans likely closed the book on Nolan’s Batman films in 2012 with the release of The Dark Knight Rises, but in an age where actors are always reprising their iconic superhero roles, anything is possible.
