Batman needs a reboot. That much is evident after the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises and the filmmaker’s repeated insistence that he’s done with the franchise.
How and when someone other than Christian Bale will don the Bat Suit might be dictated not by the studio, but by the impact The Avengers has had on superhero films and Hollywood as a whole.
It’s no secret Warner Bros. has hit the accelerator to get a Justice League film in the works after The Avengers became the third highest grossing film of all time this past summer. Rumors suggest a 2015 release to go head-to-head with Marvel’s The Avengers 2 in the same year.
There’s no Justice League movie without Batman and Superman at minimum, and there’s no real time to launch another standalone Batman film from scratch between now and 2015.
According to an industry source speaking with Batman on Film, Warner Bros. intends to introduce their next Bruce Wayne and Batman in the Justice League movie. A standalone Batman film starring that same actor would come after the debut of Justice League. By the time Batman gets his own film, he’s already well established and hooked up with (theoretically) Superman, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Flash, or some similar collection of DC superheroes.
This source goes on to suggest that Justice League will be part of a larger “DC Cinematic Universe” modeled after Marvel’s. Whether next summer’s Man of Steel is the beginning of that universe remains to be seen. I’d put the odds at 70/30 because imagine how silly it would be for two Supermans to be introduced two years apart from one another.
All this talk is only rumors right and we won’t get any real indication of what’s going on with Batman until Warner leaks out something concrete or Justice League is somehow set up via Superman’s entrance in Man of Steel.
Source: Batman on Film
