Zack Snyder’s recent comments have sent DC fans to a whole new level of frenzy. According to him, Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy stood a strong chance of being connected to “Man of Steel” from DCEU. As one of the producers of Henry Cavill starrer standalone Superman film, Christopher Nolan was the one to propose this idea. It prompted the studios to consider making “The Dark Knight Rises” the foundation of the DCEU.
Had Nolan’s universe been a part of “Man of Steel”, Christian Bale’s Batman would have returned in a supporting role. “The Dark Knight Rises” ended with Bruce Wayne faking his death and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Robin carrying the Batman-mantle forward. This narrative could have revived Bale’s Wayne as a retired mentor figure to Levitt’s Batman. According to Zack Snyder “It was not 100 % off the table,”. He added “We did talk about it a little bit. The whole thing is that, I think that it’s difficult, and it would have been interesting because that would have meant, just doing the math, that the Batman – maybe that’s why we didn’t do it, that if we had done that the Batman in this movie would have been probably… It would’ve been Joseph [Gordon-Levitt]. Which could’ve been cool.”
But the plans were dropped due to the difference in both the universes. While Nolan Universe took a realistic and grounded approach, DCEU envisioned a fantasy route. As we now know, the franchise intended to introduce aliens, multiverses, and time-travel, which was in contrast to Nolan-verse.
Had Bale’s Batman kicked off the DCEU, we would have seen him as Barry Allen’s mentor in place of Ben Affleck. As interesting as that sounds, it would have limited DCEU’s ability to explore its signature science-fictional elements, such as Superman’s alien roots and Flash’s time travel. So, which one would you pick, time travel or Bale’s Dark Knight? Anyhow, “The Dark Knight” fans shouldn’t lose hope just yet. Going by the reports, Ezra Miller’s Flash running across multiverses will bump him into Michael Keaton’s cameo as the classic Batman. So, bringing Tim Burton’s universe surely opens gates to Nolan-verse as well. Perhaps, Christian Bale will, after all, join Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton’s Dark Knight in Andrés Muschietti’s upcoming “The Flash”.
