Christian Bale Officially Drops Batman Role

Earnest Cavalli

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Jun 19, 2008
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Christian Bale Officially Drops Batman Role



Christian Bale is done with Batman, so the question now is, "who will next don the cape and cowl?"

For a large segment of the population, Christian Bale is Batman. Thanks to Christopher Nolan's excellent film trilogy, Bale has become indelibly linked with the character in many minds, and at this point the only people who picture another actor on hearing the word "Batman" are sixty-five-year-olds still harboring a crush on Adam West, and insufferable children of the 1980s who refuse to accept anyone but Kevin Conroy as the Dark Knight.

While I certainly fall into that latter camp, Bale was an awesome Batman, and it's sad to hear that he's finished with the role. Entertainment Weekly recently asked Bale about the possibility that he might play Batman in Warner Bros.' forever-in-development Justice League film adaptation, but the actor quickly shot down the possibility.

"We were incredibly fortunate to get to make three [Batman films]. That's enough. Let's not get greedy," Bale says. "[Christopher Nolan] always said he wanted to make it one film at a time, and we ended up sitting there looking at each other, saying 'We're about to make the third.' We never really knew if we were going to get to be there, but if that was how it was going to be, this was where it should end as well."

As to the idea of seeing someone else in the role of Bruce Wayne, Bale seems very comfortable with the idea. "It's a torch that should be handed from one actor to another," he says. "I enjoy looking forward to what somebody else will come up with."

That leads us to the all-important question of who should now become Batman? Warner Bros. and DC Comics make far too much cash off of the property for there to not be a cinematic Batman, but with Bale out of the picture who do you get to replace him? There are lots of actors who could potentially play Batman, but few who have the utter dedication to their craft to compete with the nuances Bale brought to the role. Plus, aesthetically, Bale was perfect to play the rich playboy cum worryingly morbid vigilante.

Since we've got nothin', we're turning this one over to you, dear readers. The comments section is below, so please make your arguments for who should next portray Batman on film. The first person to say "Kevin Conroy" loses points for blatant pandering (though I appreciate the effort).

Source: Entertainment Weekly [http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/07/01/christian-bale-batman-justice-league/]

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erbkaiser

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Jun 20, 2009
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Time for Richard Armitage. He was/is absolutely brilliant in The Hobbit as Thorin Oakenshield, and we know he can do action really well thanks to Robin Hood and Spooks. Tell me you can't see him as Bruce Wayne and Batman.
He has the looks to play a playboy, and the skills to be the fighter Batman needs to be.
 

Dr. Crawver

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Nov 20, 2009
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I am genuinely unsure of who will be the next batman. Bale wasn't bad, even though I wasn't fond of the gravel-voice. Here's to another new interesting take on the character, whoever might do it.
 

hazabaza1

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Nov 26, 2008
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Good.
He's a good Bruce Wayne but a shitty Batman. Let's hope someone without throat cancer comes along next time.
 

thetoddo

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May 18, 2010
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Tamoh Penikett would be my choice if they're not doing a reboot again.

Sam Worthington would be a good choice as well.

Or they can just get Bruce Willis and do The Dark Knight Returns.
 

omega 616

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May 1, 2009
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Come on, how large do you think the riots would be if ...

[HEADING=1]Hahaha![/HEADING]

Meh, I am not bothered, I'm not a batman fan. I still think Tom Hardy getting the role of Bane was a crime. (I like Tom as an actor but he didn't have the build for Bane)
 

mechalynx

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Mar 23, 2008
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Let's see, who's not too soapy, has an impressive chin and isn't already a comic book hero actor? Damn, I can't think of a single actor.

Adrian Pasdar?
 

Andy Shandy

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Jun 7, 2010
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As a curveball, go for Rupert Penry Jones. With that voice he could definitely sound like a billionaire, and from what I (admittedly vaguely) remember from Spooks, he can definitely handle the Batman side of things too.
 

Trivun

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Dec 13, 2008
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Believe it or not, I would actually like to see them tie the Nolan trilogy into a Justice League film and have Joseph Gordon Levitt become the new Batman. Hear me out here, before you start ridiculing me. SPOILERS AHOY, BY THE WAY!!!!!

At the end of The Dark Knight Rises, we had Robin John Blake (known by his middle name, John) inherit Wayne Manor and be given directions to the Bat Cave. I won't go into all the issues with this, and how Wayne would be found almost immediately living alive and well with Selina Kyle in Florence (given his status as a billionaire playboy), because others already have done. The point here is that he has the basic physical strength (as a cop), the basic mental attributes (as a detective), and the resources (via his inheritance) to be able to take up the cowl. However, these are the basics. He doesn't have the ongoing wealth source, so will have to rely on the remaining funds siphoned off by Morgan Freeman, playing Morgan Freeman, playing Lucius Fox, from Wayne Industries in order to fund the overheads to keep the Cave running and power the equipment. He still doesn't have the years of training or experience that Bruce Wayne had though, so he'll struggle noticeably.

Overall, the potential is there but as the trilogy was grounded in (relative) realism, it doesn't make a massive amount of sense. Therefore, I see a Justice League movie where the main heroes EXCEPT FOR BATMAN are involved (Superman, Wonder Woman, Auaman, Green Arrow, and no-one else to start off. Maybe Green Lantern if they can make a new film that's actually good, though I'd say they should still keep Ryan Reynolds in the role if he can be a slightly more serious version of Hal Jordan...). Batman isn't a part of the group, but when Bat-Blake ends up trying to get involved he soon realises he's way out of his depth, something the likes of Jim Gordon already realise due to his mainly taking down small fry in Gotham rather than bigger villains as Bruce Wayne did.

In my vision of the story, each of the Justice League will have had their own origin movies already. As such, I see Justice League (the movie) as effectively being partly the second half of an origin story for the John Blake Batman, the first half having been The Dark Knight Rises. During Justice League, in my idea, Blake will finally realise that he's out of his depth and end up enlisting the help of the other Justice League members to deal with a larger threat, through which they see his potential and decide to train him. The training itself would be a slow and ongoing process as a side story to the main plot and villain, but would ultimately have Blake acting as an effective and skilled successor to the cowl. He still wouldn't have the same skills and abilities as the Bruce Wayne Batman, but would eventually develop to that extent (from the Begins level of skill through to the Rises level of skill that fought Bane) over the course of further films in the continuity. An ongoing character development story that shows the rise of the new Batman despite the early struggles.

With this, we get the Justice League movie we all (presumably) want to see, we get a realistic and sensible character arc, and we get to see the existing Batman film cycle become a part of that mythos which eliminates the need for a new Bruce Wayne and a rehash of the same old origin that Batman always has. Plus, we might get to hear Joseph Gordon Levitt say the infamous "Goddamn Batman" line, which would be pretty awesome ;D.

Obviously the concept requires a lot of tweaking, but this is just a rough idea of what could be done. If anyone else has any ideas or comments, please, I'd love to hear them :)
 

CriticalMiss

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Jan 18, 2013
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Why don't we (shock horror) not have a Batman :O

You could still have Bats in a Justice League film, just don't have him physically appearing. Get Kevin Conroy to do the true voice of Batman and say that he is too busy painting the Batcave to go and fight [insert super powerful enemy here] or something. Throw Robin/Batgirl in to fight the Bat corner of the movie and we can all enjoy having underused characters in the film where they might gain some popularity.
 

ZZoMBiE13

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Oct 10, 2007
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*Waits for the inevitable news story about J.J. Abrams getting hired to write and direct the next Batman trilogy. Likely starring Tom Cruise*
 

idarkphoenixi

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May 2, 2011
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Hopefully I'll be able to understand the next Batman.

Seriously, the first movie was okay but by the second and third one I needed to put on subs for my DVD copy.
 

SonOfVoorhees

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Aug 3, 2011
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He was a good batman, just that growling voice thing sucked. I liked Michael Keatons batman. :) Who could play Batman next? Not that "robin" guy from the last movie.
 

Nikki Byrd

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Feb 27, 2013
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Yay!! Thank whatever higher power you believe in!! Now we just have to get Nolan away from anymore DC movies.
 

winterforge

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Jul 2, 2013
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SonOfVoorhees said:
He was a good batman, just that growling voice thing sucked. I liked Michael Keatons batman. :) Who could play Batman next? Not that "robin" guy from the last movie.
I agree, I liked Bale for the most part, but that voice thing he did was downright laughable at times. I mean literally, my wife and I would be laughing at his "over-voicing" and it wasn't supposed to be a funny scene.
 

sirjeffofshort

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I'm prepared for the backlash on this one, but I seriously didn't like Bale as Batman at all. He was a decent Bruce Wayne, but one of the worst Batmans (Batmen?) in my opinion.

I'm just hoping at this point they can leave well enough alone and move on with the story. Even if its a 'new Batman' I don't think that's an origin story I ever need to see again. Give me a new story, something a little further along in his career.