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The Dark Knight remains the pinnacle of the genre, and as a series there’s no better superhero movie trilogy, but the 2020s has posed a risk to it for one big reason: everything from the past came back. Recent years have seen former Batman actors Michael Keaton and George Clooney both return in rather underwhelming fashion. Beyond them, there’s been Spider-Man stars Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Hugh Jackman un-retired from being Wolverine, and Avengers: Doomsday is bringing back multiple former X-Men. Even Christopher Reeve, rather horribly, made a big screen appearance again via CGI. No star or franchise has been allowed to rest in peace, yet nothing has happened with Nolan’s movies.
Nolan & Bale’s Batman Must Only Return On One Condition
It seems rather remarkable, in the modern superhero movie landscape, that we haven’t seen any of those characters come back in some way. Warner Bros. certainly must have been tempted, and it’d be surprising if conversations hadn’t happened. It remains the defining take on Batman for a generation of moviegoers, and the character’s most successful outings financially. With other Batmans, Spider-Men, and even actors who never actually got to play Superman (like Nicholas Cage) making multiversal appearances, it would’ve been very easy to think of including a cameo for Christian Bale’s Dark Knight somewhere along the way.
Similarly, with DC movies struggling before James Gunn’s franchise reset, and nostalgia-driven releases a box office draw, then there’d surely have been a temptation to do something bigger. That could’ve been more like what Spider-Man: No Way Home did, or even trying to get The Dark Knight 4 made, which would be about as guaranteed a $1 billion box office hit as DC could get. Thankfully, none of that has happened, which is a relief in a cinema world where no stone will be left unturned to bring back something people know, and where those returns feel increasingly cheap and like a cash-grab.
