3. The Batman Situation
If the plan is to do
Justice League or even
World's Finest, you obviously need Batman. Unfortunately for WB, Nolan's acclaimed trilogy takes place in its own separate, standalone universe where Batman is the only hero around. This means that in order for a shared DC universe to happen, a Batman reboot has to happen. To paraphrase the great philosopher Jules Winnfield, you've got to appreciate what an explosive element this Batman Situation is. Nolan's trilogy is one of the most successful film franchises ever. Its critical reception is unmatched in the superhero film genre. The three films combined to gross $2.5 billion at the worldwide box office (including $1 billion each from the last two films).
The Dark Knight and
The Dark Knight Rises were honored by the American Film Institute. Heath Ledger won an Oscar for playing the Joker. All three installments are ranked in the IMDb Top 250. It's a huge part of the pop culture zeitgeist and sits aside the
Lord of the Rings trilogy as the defining cinematic event of my generation. It's not something that screams, "REBOOT ME!" like
Batman and Robin did. Rebooting Batman - especially this early on - would be an extremely risky move. Sony received a lot of backlash for giving Spider-Man the quick reboot treatment and I can only imagine the polarizing reaction to WB hitting the restart button on the Caped Crusader. In my opinion, it's still too soon to reboot the character. Call me hooked on Nolan all you want, I just don't see the upside to doing this. From an artistic standpoint, there's no benefit. Many regard the
Dark Knight films as the definitive film interpretation of the character. There's seemingly nowhere to go but down. Let's also keep in mind that audiences were constantly reminded about the Batman films during marketing for
Man of Steel. The title card "And Producer Christopher Nolan, Director of THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY" was used in every TV spot and theatrical trailer. Casual audiences (or people who don't follow this stuff closely) may see that and make a mental connection between the two franchises (and yes,
Man of Steel is very much "Superman Begins"). If all of a sudden, Armie Hammer pops up and says, "I'm Batman," it's going to confuse a hell of a lot of people who are expecting Christian Bale. If the plan was to use
Man of Steel as the first film in a shared DC universe with a new Batman, I don't think the studio would have used
The Dark Knight so much in marketing. Yes, Nolan's name had to be included due to his clout in the industry, but you could have said "Producer Christopher Nolan" and people would know who you're talking about. In today's remake and reboot happy Hollywood, yet another Batman reboot could also alienate audiences who loved these three films (like me) or are tired of the practice, which is the last thing the studio wants after building goodwill with moviegoers. Rebooting Batman just for the sake of
Justice League doesn't make any sense, especially when they have a new Superman series to sustain them for the next 5+ years. If they want to move forward on a shared universe, they need to carefully plan out a solution to this Batman problem and sell audiences on a new version that's better than Bale's. Again, they're not going to rush something especially right after this Batman trilogy wrapped up complete with its "THE LEGEND ENDS" marketing campaign.