10 Terrible Mistakes That Almost Ruined Batman For Everyone

2. Batman Triumphant

There have been any number of Batman films that never made it to screen, but easily the worst, outstripping even Aronofsky's Not-Batman: Year One, is the bloated, hyperactive joke that would have been Joel Schumacher's third take on the property.

With a cast that would have included Nic Cage as The Scarecrow, and Madonna as Harley Quinn (reimagined as The Joker's vengeful daughter,) the film was optioned when Warner Bros were somehow impressed with the dailies for Batman & Robin.

But thankfully, when the film tanked, the studio saw sense and cut Joel Schumacher away from the project, letting Batman have a rest from the relentless numb-skullery of Schumacher's luminous world until Nolan came in to save the day.

While Batman & Robin wasn't quite enough to kill the potential of the product altogether, the prospect of another catastrophic, camp failure from Schumacher, with the added kickers of Cage and Madonna, would probably have spelled disaster for Batman as a viable option, and we would have had to wait longer to see him back on screen, and probably not with Chris Nolan at the helm.

Considering the impact the director had, you have to wonder what the trajectory of the films might then have been.