Beyond The Dark Knight Rises: What Next?

So Christopher Nolan's Bat-trilogy is done. He's hung up his directorial cowl and along with it his leading man. Christian Bale has stated on numerous occasions that he won't be interested in reprising his role as Bruce Wayne if Nolan isn't directing. To me, that makes sense. He doesn't want to be known as one of these actors who just keeps doing the same one or two roles (sorry Mr. Downey) for years on end. They had a story they wanted to tell, and now we know it was really the story of Bruce Wayne, not necessarily Batman because as we all know, Batman will live forever. Before we go on, I think it's important to mention that I'm one of the guys who believe that Bruce did not die at the end of The Dark Knight Rises; He's in Florence and he's married to Selina Kyle. One thing he is definitely not, however, is Batman. Sorry people, but that's just the way it is. So, if we're sticking with my take on it (which we are, because it's my article) that leaves one huge question going forward from Nolan's magnum opus. Who's going to be the new Batman? Can we REALLY see Warner Bros. making a Batman film with no Bruce Wayne? Would the casual audience member really accept that? Probably not. Will they give up on Batman films? Probably not. But would they do a TV show with someone other than Bruce Wayne as Batman? God I hope so. I've been thinking about this for a long time, since they first announced Bane in fact. We all know Bane's comic book history; breaking the Bat, making room for Jean-Paul Valley to take over as the somewhat more psychotic, kill-people-with-guns Batman. And then Bruce comes back, beats him up and bit and takes back the cowl. Nolan took bits of that story and used them in The Dark Knight Rises, but I think there's still some room for more. There was some commotion a little while back about DC/WB wanting to do a Batman TV show reboot-type thing. Sounds alright so far, give cinema-goers a bit of a Bat-break (sorry...) and throw it about on TV for a bit. But what if this is the way it went: The show starts with Batman beating up some random mugger-types and heading back to the Batcave. He takes off the cowl and underneath is the one and only Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake (or Robin, which I thought was a really nice touch by the way) as Batman. No Bruce Wayne, no Alfred, just John Blake. Then, after 2 seasons of the TV show, Blake has turned into the live action version of Jean-Paul Valley, something needs to change. So, after only 2 seasons, the series finale airs with Bruce Wayne coming back (Yes, it would be Christian Bale) to lead into an epic confrontation between the two in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Returns. At this point, I'm sure you're all screaming €˜Shut up, moron!' at your laptops, but stick with me here, I'm going somewhere. Back in May, Christian Bale said to Empire that he would do another Batman IF Nolan turned around and said there was another story to tell (which would be built up on TV). That leaves the door open from his end, and Nolan is quite clearly contracted to WB (judging by his involvement on Man of Steel) and if I'm WB, I've already secured his services for many years to come. So we're left with the epic confrontation of Bat vs. Bat and one last piece of the puzzle. Nolan's a huge fan of misdirection, so everything you've read about no more Nolan/Batman could all be a smoke screen. It's important to point out that this is purely conjecture on my part, but it's a theory that could, with very little effort on WB/DC's part, come to pass. And on top of that, it would be awesome. I'd love to hear what you think in the comments section, so please feel free to post whatever you like, unless you are calling me a moron, then maybe don't...