No matter how tempting it may be to return to what you know, sometimes you just have to say you’re done. It seems that Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan both knew when it was time to move on from the Batman series, and they were sticking by their guns.
Bale is out on the promotional circuit for Ford v Ferrari, and with Batman once again in the air due to Matt Reeves’ The Batman, Bale is getting some questions about his time in the cowl. The Toronto Sun asked Bale if he and Nolan knew they were reinventing comic book movies, and he said, “We knew we had to reinvent it. I literally had people laugh at me when I told them we were doing a new kind of Batman. I think that the reason it worked was first and foremost Chris’ take on it.”
He went on to add, “But also we never were arrogant to assume that we had an opportunity beyond one film at a time. That’s something that Chris always would talk about. He’d say, “This is it. We’re making one film. That’s all we’ve got.” Bale went on about how as they were asked to do each subsequent film, they were sure it would be their last opportunity, but they knew there was a stopping point, saying, “Chris had always said to me that if we were fortunate to be able to make three we would stop. “Let’s walk away after that,” he said.”
And after the success of The Dark Knight Rises, the pair reached that crossroads. “Then when they inevitably came to us and said, “How about a No. 4?” I said, “No. We have to stick to Chris’ dream, which was always to, hopefully, do a trilogy. Let’s not stretch too far and become overindulgent and go for a fourth.” Bale added, “That’s why we, well Chris, stepped away. After that I was informed my services were no longer required (laughs).”
Considering where Rises left the Batman character, it’s pretty clear that they never had intentions to go for a fourth film. The two of them got to tell the story arc they wanted to, and it was time to move on and let the next team have a go at telling the story of the Dark Knight.
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SOURCE: Toronto Sun
