10 'What If?' Scenarios That Almost Changed Comic Book Movies Forever
2. Batman Triumphtant
It sounds like a tale made up to scare children, but at one point Joel Schumacher was officially going to direct another Batman movie. A writer was hired, Scarecrow was rumored to be the villain and a tentative summer 1999 release date was announced. Then Batman & Robin happened, people saw it with their own eyes, they reacted, and the nipples n' neon take on the character was immediately killed.
Little did they know that the Matrix was about to make leather cool again in the summer of 1999, or they probably would have gone ahead with it. The script was said to feature Harley Quinn as the Joker's daughter who seeks revenge on Batman for her father's death, with Mr. J himself set to appear as a hallucination in the Dark Knight's mind while under the influence of Scarecrow's fear toxin. Or something. But hey, the rumors of Nicolas Cage going full meme to play the villain in a Joel Schumacher Batman would have been quite something.
Thankfully, Schumacher was finally kicked off the franchise after running it into the ground. More camp antics from the Caped Crusader could have turned the comic book movie into a laughing stock by the time it even got to the Millenium, and without Batman's extended absence from our screens Christopher Nolan would never have got the chance to make Batman Begins, one of the most influential blockbusters of the 21st Century.