Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Flash movie.While multiple superhero actors are turning to roles they’d long departed, Christian Bale’s Dark Knight return - and with it, perhaps, he and Christopher Nolan making Batman 4 - remains a near-impossibility. When it comes to Batman, Bale casts a shadow so large the Dark Knight could fight his entire rogues' gallery in it. The DCEU was never fully able to escape it, due to various issues plaguing the movies starring Ben Affleck’s Batman, so it took until 2022’s The Batman to truly offer up a version that could truly take up the mantle left by Bale and run with it for a new solo Batman trilogy. Still, there will likely always be talk of a Bale return.
That’s increasingly the case as more actors return to their iconic roles. This includes the likes of Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man and Patrick Stewart as Professor X, but specifically with Batman too. Michael Keaton came back for The Flash movie (and Batgirl too, if only Warner Bros. Discovery wanted to release it), so too did Affleck after previously seeming done with the role, and most shockingly George Clooney is the new Batman at the end of the film. With three former Caped Crusaders all returning for more, then it further raises the question whether Bale himself will - but like it or not, it probably won’t happen.
A Christian Bale Multiverse Return Would Be Cheap (Even After Keaton & Maguire's Returns)
Christian Bale returning as Batman, for either a cameo like George Clooney or supporting role like Michael Keaton, would inevitably risk feeling cheap, even when those other comebacks worked. Part of that is because many of the returning actors had a sense of unfinished business: Keaton went out on a high with Batman Returns, but the original plan was for him to make another movie; Clooney was the right Batman movie actor at the wrong time, and became a punching bag for a film whose biggest issues weren’t his fault; Tobey Maguire is beloved as Spider-Man but had a bad final movie (and also had previously hoped to make a fourth with Sam Raimi).
The Dark Knight Rises has some detractors, of course, but it’s mostly well-liked and provided a fitting send-off to Bale’s Batman that very solidly ends his story. There is also a generational problem with Bale returning. Keaton, Clooney, and even Maguire come from different eras of superhero movie, so much so that it felt as though enough time has passed (and enough nostalgia built up) for them to return.
Bale’s Batman tenure briefly overlaps with Maguire’s Spider-Man (the former started in 2005, the latter exited in 2007), but that itself is a somewhat startling fact because of the sense they’re from different times. Maguire’s Spider-Man was hugely important for comic book movies, but Bale and Nolan changed notions of what they could be, especially with The Dark Knight. It’s been over a decade since The Dark Knight Rises, but the trilogy’s impact on modern superhero movies remains so clear, and the films themselves largely undated, that it’s too soon for a return, and it would risk being a cheap trick.
Christian Bale Can Only Return As Batman If Christopher Nolan Is Directing Batman 4
Rather than a multiverse cameo or other smaller comeback, the only real way for Christian Bale to return as Batman is if Christopher Nolan decides to make Batman 4. That isn’t just opinion, but Bale’s own feeling on the matter, as he expressed in 2022. Bale responded to questions about returning as Batman, saying:
“I had a pact with Chris Nolan. 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.”
Not only is it seemingly the only way it can happen, but it’s the only way it should happen (and even then there are concerns). If Nolan was back, then it would at least mean he thought he had a great story to tell. He’s a director who, outside of Batman, rarely makes sequels, loves original ideas, and certainly has no need to revisit the past for a guaranteed hit given he can get just about any project he wants green lit based simply on his name. The success of The Dark Knight Trilogy came (in part) from Bale and Nolan as a duo, and so that would need to continue for a fourth movie.
A 4th Dark Knight Film Is The Biggest Movie DC Could Make... But Should Never Happen
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DC is in need of some reliable big hitters. The DCEU has long lagged behind the MCU, but now it’s also falling short of its own, more meager standards. The Flash movie bombed at the box office, but it was just the latest in a string of flops. Outside of Joker and The Batman (which are in separate universes), the DCEU itself hasn’t had a hit since 2019’s Shazam! ($367 milliom at the box office again at a budget of around $100m), and not a major smash since Aquaman made over $1 billion in December 2018.
James Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe hopes to change that beginning with Superman: Legacy, and has its own Batman plans alongside a wide slate of other movies and shows, but given the sorry state of things then nothing is guaranteed. Well, almost nothing, because Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan making Batman 4 absolutely would be a box office hit (and that's putting it mildly).
The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises both made over $1 billion, and no one would bet against a sequel doing the same and then some. The franchise is still so big and so beloved, and would be supported further by over a decade of absence to make the heart grow fonder, that it’s one of the biggest movies that could possibly be made. DC has never had a $2 billion movie - a fourth Dark Knight film is probably the closest plausible option it has. For all the financial sense, though, would there be any story to tell?
Given where Nolan chose to conclude things, with The Dark Knight Rises' ending a happy one for Bale's Batman, is it possible for him to return without feeling like a betrayal of that narrative and the trilogy’s themes? It would be unwise to bet against Nolan's Batman 4, sure, but when both director and star went out on their own terms, and in such a successful fashion, why take the risk. Let every other Batman come back if that’s what DC wants, but Bale and Nolan are better staying in the past - heeding the Dark Knight trilogy’s own advice about dying a hero or living long enough to become a villain.