Kevin Smith Would Have Preferred for Christian Bale to Have Returned for ‘Batman v. Superman’

Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman gets a lot of criticism, but it also gets a lot of comparison — specifically to Christian Bale‘s version of the character in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy with many believing the DCEU would have been better had Bale reprised the role. Now, Kevin Smith is weighing in with which actor he would have preferred to see in Batman v Superman.

During a recent episode of his Fat Man on Batman podcast with Mark Bernardin, a fan asked if Smith thought the DCEU would have been better with Bale back as Batman and Smith had quite a few thoughts on the matter, specifically on how it would have improved the continuity of the films.

“Number one, I like your movie a lot more,” Smith said of a Batman v Superman with Bale. “It feels like, I mean, was that, they weren’t saying that Ben was Christian Bale, but they were saying like ‘oh he’s been around for years he’s not that guy anymore.’ I think I would have preferred it, and I’m not, this ain’t sh**ting on Affleck, but as a guy who loved the Nolan trilogy when they announced like hey they’re making Man of Steel and Chris Nolan’s a producer on it, ‘I was like “oh f**k man, so that means like his Batman and his Superman will coexist’ and then ultimately it wound up being Zack Snyder’s Superman… Batman instead. I would have preferred the Christian Bale version just as a continuity freak of like yeah, all these f**kers… and also it would have been like, what does everyone b**ch about DC movies doing? Oh, they’re trying to be like Marvel and catch up to Marvel. They had it right there. They were like making these f**king Batman movies forever so now we’re just going to connect them, so we’ve got a universe but instead they launched a brand-new universe.”

Smith went on to explain how, with Nolan’s films being so popular with fans, it would have been a very smart decision to have Bale back even in a limited capacity and Bernardin agreed and elaborated on just how easy it would have been to connect the ending of The Dark Knight Rises to Man of Steel by making Superman’s actions in that film the reason the Dark Knight would return.

“And not only that, but then it becomes an emotional story, it becomes what makes this guy give up happiness like what does Superman do … we won’t discuss the fact that Batman retired because Batman doesn’t f**king retire, but had he retired, what’s enough to pull this guy away from the dream he’s always had of having the girl, of having the paradise, of having to be able to not be haunted and tortured by his parents’ death what brings the guy to put the suit back on?” Bernardin said.

While bringing Bale’s Batman into things clearly would have worked from a storytelling perspective, actually having made that happen within the DCEU would have likely been impossible. Bale has been fairly open about his feelings on playing a superhero again and fans shouldn’t expect to see him suit up — as Batman or any other comic book superhero — anytime soon.

“No, I’m not interested in doing that,” Bale told Collider in 2017. “I’ve never seen — I’m trying to thin if that’s correct, I think I’m actually correct. I can’t remember a single superhero film that I’ve ever watched. Apart from the ones I made and like, Christopher Reeve Superman films.”

Bale also told Variety last year that he has mixed feelings about the Dark Knight trilogy as it is but when it comes to portrayals of Batman on the big screen, for fans who weren’t pleased with Affleck’s take on Batman they might be getting a new take on the character sooner rather than later. Earlier this month a report surfaced that the upcoming stand-alone Batman film, The Batman, will “likely” be a reboot with a new actor in the role — not Affleck.

What do you think? Would you have preferred Christian Bale as Batman, connecting the Nolan trilogy to the DCEU? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The DC Extended universe continues with Aquaman on December 21, Shazam! on April 5, 2019, Wonder Woman 1984 on November 1, 2019, Cyborg in 2020, and Green Lantern Corps in 2020.