A new Batman movie is coming in 2026, and it has a chance to show Christoper Nolan how to adapt a storyline that he fell short of telling 14 years ago. There are a lot of projects in the works for DC at Warner Bros., with James Gunn working hard on the live-action and animated side to piece together a franchise that works both as a collective unit and as separate side projects. The new Batman movie coming in 2026 appears to be an unconnected release from the DCU, and it is adapting one of DC’s best Batman storylines.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The new movie is called Batman: Knightfall, and for DC Comics fans, that is big news. Knightfall was a Batman series that popularized a new villain to his mythos, as Bane enjoyed his breakout in this series just four months after making his DC debut in Batman: Vengeance of Bane. He sent Batman through a series of challenges against a myriad of rogues before finally picking the right time to strike out and break the Bat.
Christopher Nolan Already Adapted Batman: Knightfall
Most Batman fans know that Christopher Nolan already adapted Batman: Knightfall. At least, he did a small part of the story. In The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan told two different stories at the same time. This made the film feel bloated, as telling two stories in one film is never a good idea. This is what happened to Zack Snyder when he directed Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice. He tried to tell the Death of Superman story, had a Batman vs. Superman story, and even threw in Lex Luthor. What resulted was a bloated movie that would have been better served as two separate films.
In The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan told part of the Knightfall story and included a pitch-perfect scene in which Bane broke Batman’s back, a shot straight out of the comics. However, that was only a small part of the movie, as the main film was an adaptation of No Man’s Land, which was also short-changed thanks to the multiple story strands. The Dark Knight Rises was a good movie, but it is fair to say that Gotham did No Man’s Land better, and there is a good chance that Batman: Knightfall will do Bane better in 2026.
Batman: Knightfall Should Easily Top Christopher Nolan’s Movie
There is one very good reason that Batman: Knightfall should top The Dark Knight Rises concerning Bane’s story. The movie will focus on Bane and the fallout from Batman being out of commission with a broken back. Also, the story will be told in multiple animated films, similar to what DC did with Watchmen and Crisis on Infinite Earths in 2024, with the latter getting three movies to tell the entire story.
While it is unknown how Batman: Knightfall will be split, the DC Comics storyline has a clear plan of action for the two movies. The first could show Bane putting Batman through hell, with all the villains attacking until he is exhausted, and Bane can come in for the final blow, taking Batman out of action. The second movie could then show Azrael’s reign as the new, more violent Batman, and Bruce Wayne’s eventual return to retake his mantle and stop his successor’s reign of terror.
This will allow the movie to delve further into the breaking of the bat, where The Dark Knight Rises had to rush through the recovery, which took away much of the intensity of the storyline. It can also do something no live-action movie could do: add as many villains to help Bane at the start as it wants, since it would be voice actors, not costly main live-action stars. Finally, it gives DC a chance to introduce the world to Azreal, a fascinating hero/villain who could really shine in the animated movies.
It could also fix some of the problems fans had with Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. While Tom Hardy was great as Bane, many fans felt the dialogue was almost impossible to understand, and Bane served as a flunky to Talia al Ghul rather than the dominating monster he was in Batman: Knightfall. It could also go deeper into his tragic past, which the Nolan movie did only slightly, but the multiple animated films could devote more time to it. This new movie could finally make Bane the monster he was always meant to be, and it could do something not even Christopher Nolan could when he took his shot 14 years ago.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
image courtesy of 20th Century Studios -
Image courtesy of Prokino Filmverleih
