It hit like a bombshell: if rumours are to be believed,
Christopher Nolan is in talks to produce an upcoming team-up between Henry Cavills Superman and Christian Bales Batman. The news was simultaneously exciting and baffling to those of us who have admired the Nolan Batman films -- exciting because
it's friggin' Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale returning to the DC on film universe; baffling because this seems to fly directly in the face of everything Christopher Nolan has previously said about his Batman series -- that
it existed in a world without other superheroes, that
The Dark Knight Rises was the definitive end of his story, etc. It's enough to send fan's heads spinning...and certainly enough to launch a thousand op-eds... Whether this potential (and it's important to emphasize that -- remember that this is Hollywood, and just because an idea's on the table doesn't mean it's 100% happening) return to the DCU by Nolan and Bale results in a World's Finest team up or a full on Justice League film, only Nolan and his "brain trust" know at this point, but you had better believe that there are already plenty of people arguing
that Nolan and Bale shouldn't come back. And to be fair, there are some pretty legitimate reasons to argue that: what if a Justice League film damages the legacy of the Dark Knight Trilogy? (Nobody wants a repeat of the Star Wars prequels, I'd be willing to bet...) What if Christian Bale's Batman winds up looking ridiculous next to a man who can fly? Why should Bale and Nolan return to Batman when they (potentially) have so many other original projects ahead of them? I recognize all of those concerns, and
share a number of them. But to be fair, let's look at the bright side -- at some reasons that Nolan and Bale returning to the "bat fold" could potentially be a
good thing. (And I swear to God, "Because I'd wet myself with excitement isn't one of them"...)