When making The Dark Knight films, Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan had a pact that they would walk away if they were fortunate enough to make three films. The pair stayed true to this vision and concluded their Batman adventure after The Dark Knight Rises. But if Nolan were to make a potential fourth film in the series, one fan had the perfect villain and actor suggestion for the Oppenheimer director.
The fan made a concept trailer in 2012 with clips from previous films and chose The Riddler as the villain for the film. The fan’s choice of actor to play The Riddler was the Oscar-winning actor Casey Affleck. While the fan’s idea of a fourth film never came to fruition, it still has a lot of potential.
Christian Bale Faces Off Against Casey Affleck In The Dark Knight 4 Fan-Made Trailer
Christopher Nolan is unlikely to return for a fourth Dark Knight film after concluding his trilogy on a positive note. While Nolan was engaged in the works of The Dark Knight Rises, one fan was already conceptualizing a fourth Dark Knight film with the comic book villain The Riddler. This fan-made trailer from the account @videoedits1988 grabbed the internet’s attention once again and fans would definitely like to see the concept made into a film.
According to the trailer, Christian Bale returns to his role once again, this time facing off against another psychopathic villain after The Joker — Casey Affleck‘s The Riddler. Interestingly, before the third film was greenlit, the studio wanted Nolan to make The Riddler as the central villain in the film. However, Nolan believed that Bane made a better villain to his story than The Riddler and Nolan’s argument made sense once the movie came out.
In the trailer, Gotham City is terrorized by the villain who is obsessed with riddles and puzzles. The villain goes on a murderous rampage and Inspector Gordon is helpless in the case. He wants the Caped Crusader to come back and take down the villain. Besides Christian Bale and Casey Affleck, Gary Oldman‘s Inspector Gordon and Morgan Freeman‘s Lucius Fox appear in the trailer.
Interestingly, Bale and Affleck would join forces a year later in 2013 for the film, Out of the Furnace. Casey Affleck would also go on to work with Christopher Nolan in the film Interstellar and later in Oppenheimer. He also received his much-deserved Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Machester by the Sea. The fan’s desire to see The Riddler as a Batman villain on the big screen also happened in 2022 in the Matt Reeves film The Batman.
As for The Dark Knight 4 film, Christian Bale revealed to the Toronto Sun in 2019 that he and Nolan agreed that they would only focus on “one film at a time.” He added that the Inception director used to mention to him that if they ever made it to a third film, they would stop making any further films in the series. With the current advent of the Dark Knight in the DC Universe and in the Elseworlds Universe, the chances of a Nolan film happening are almost none.
Christian Bale’s The Dark Knight 4 Had The Potential To Complete A Crucial Character Arc
While fans saw Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne retiring from his crime-fighting days at the end of The Dark Knight Rises, they missed one major Batman arc from the comics. At the end of the film, Bruce Wayne leads John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to uncover his Batcave and all his equipment. It is hinted that John will take on the mantle of Robin in the film. However, fans did not get to see Wayne himself train the new protector of Gotham City.
In DC Comics, Batman is surrounded by many apprentices who learn the lessons of crime-fighting from him. Batman took all these kids under his wing and served as a mentor for them. His apprentices included Dick Grayson, who became Nightwing, Jason Todd, who became the Red Hood, and Tim Drake. He even trained Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl in the comics. In Christopher Nolan’s films, Bale’s Batman was surrounded by mentors rather than mentees.
Thus, a fourth film could have roped back the Dark Knight into Gotham City to fight The Riddler, while also exploring his personal core story as a mentor to John Blake. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy is now available for streaming on Max.
