While Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight films were always meant to be a trilogy, that wasn’t necessarily the case while he was making them.
While discussing his new film Ford v Ferrari with the Toronto Sun, Batman portrayer Christian Bale opened up about his role in the films, revealing why a fourth Dark Knight movie never came to be.
“We knew we had to reinvent it. I literally had people laugh at me when I told them we were doing a new kind of Batman. I think that the reason it worked was first and foremost Chris’ take on it,” said Bale of Batman.
“But also we never were arrogant to assume that we had an opportunity beyond one film at a time,” Bale revealed. “That’s something that Chris always would talk about. He’d say, “This is it. We’re making one film. That’s all we’ve got.’ Then when they came and said, ‘You want to go make another?’ it was fantastic, but we still said, ‘This is it. We will not get another opportunity.'”
The Dark Knight films, he insisted, only became a trilogy when Warner Bros. “came and they said, ‘Okay, let’s do a third one.’”
According to Bale, “Chris had always said to me that if we were fortunate to be able to make three we would stop. ‘Let’s walk away after that,’ he said. Then when they inevitably came to us and said, ‘How about a number four?’ I said, ‘No. We have to stick to Chris’ dream, which was always to, hopefully, do a trilogy. Let’s not stretch too far and become overindulgent and go for a fourth.’ That’s why we, well Chris, stepped away. After that I was informed my services were no longer required [laughs].”
“Ford v Ferrari” is in theatres now.
