Batman Begins was a fresh start for the superhero, but it was also meant to be the end of Christopher Nolan’s foray into the world of The Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight may be one of the best Batman movies on the big screen, but according to a new director’s book Christopher Nolan, the film was never part of his plan. As revealed by slash movie in an excerpt from the book by Ian Nathan Christopher Nolan: The Iconic Filmmaker and His WorkNolan once planned to make one Batman movie and then move away from what eventually became an entire trilogy starring Christian Bale in the lead role.
Batman Begins rebooted the DC franchise nearly a decade later Batman & Robin brought the first series of big-screen Dark Knight movies to a poorly received end. While the movie ended with a tease of a sequel, it seems Christopher Nolan had no real intention of following it up, but things didn’t go as expected. The snippet revealed:
“For once, it was a trick he pulled himself. The playing card that Gary Oldman’s tough cop James Gordon reveals in a Ziploc at the end of Batman Begins — the Joker, of course — was intended as a glimmer of anticipation and opportunity to take the audience home, no more than that. Christopher Nolan had no intention of keeping a franchise, he had done his superhero bit by bringing Batman back from his decline to camp, and wanted to get away to be more personal, original This was just a tease, or at best a parting offer to the studio – the tempting question of what a revamped (as far as fans are concerned, a Nolanized) Joker might look. story would continue,” he claimed, “not because we were going to make a sequel.'”
What if The Dark Knight Not made?
Batman Begins was quite the rebirth for the iconic DC hero. A gritty real-life Batman in a Gotham city full of dark and dangerous criminals instead of a bunch of brightly colored, gimmicky cartoon characters spouting one-liners. While Liam Neeson’s Ra’s al Ghul, Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow, and Tom Wilkinson’s Carmine Falcone were decent enough villains for any Batman movie to have on board, they pale in comparison to the arrival of Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight.
The sequel may not have been planned by Nolan, but it delivered a tour de force. Ledger’s Oscar-Winning Performance Nearly Tripled the Gross of Batman Begins to become the first Batman film to take over $1 billion at the box office, leading to The Dark Knight Rises, which is the highest-grossing Batman film to date. Sometimes it seems like things can just turn out in ways that can’t be foreseen, and while movie sequels are almost expected with big holdings, Nolan’s intent to make just one movie and step aside proves that the filmmakers are behind some of the most acclaimed sequels in movie history aren’t always on board with the idea of getting involved in a substantial commitment to one multi-film project without a bit of coaxing.