13 Years Later, Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy Survived the Big Threat to Its Legacy & Is Better for It

20 years on from Batman Begins‘ release, and 13 since it wrapped up, The Dark Knight trilogy has survived a threat to its legacy and is even better for it. Christopher Nolan’s film series, in particular The Dark Knight itself, completely changed the game not only for Batman movies, but superhero cinema in general. It turned them into something more serious, where they could become Oscar contenders while still raking in over $1 billion at the box office. It led to a shift in approach, where gritty and grounded replaced some of the more overtly comic-book style movies from the genre; it was often imitated, but never bettered.

The Dark Knight remains the pinnacle of the genre, and as a series there’s no better superhero movie trilogy, but the 2020s has posed a risk to it for one big reason: everything from the past came back. Recent years have seen former Batman actors Michael Keaton and George Clooney both return in rather underwhelming fashion. Beyond them, there’s been Spider-Man stars Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Hugh Jackman un-retired from being Wolverine, and Avengers: Doomsday is bringing back multiple former X-Men. Even Christopher Reeve, rather horribly, made a big screen appearance again via CGI. No star or franchise has been allowed to rest in peace, yet nothing has happened with Nolan’s movies.

Nolan & Bale’s Batman Must Only Return On One Condition

It seems rather remarkable, in the modern superhero movie landscape, that we haven’t seen any of those characters come back in some way. Warner Bros. certainly must have been tempted, and it’d be surprising if conversations hadn’t happened. It remains the defining take on Batman for a generation of moviegoers, and the character’s most successful outings financially. With other Batmans, Spider-Men, and even actors who never actually got to play Superman (like Nicholas Cage) making multiversal appearances, it would’ve been very easy to think of including a cameo for Christian Bale’s Dark Knight somewhere along the way.

Similarly, with DC movies struggling before James Gunn’s franchise reset, and nostalgia-driven releases a box office draw, then there’d surely have been a temptation to do something bigger. That could’ve been more like what Spider-Man: No Way Home did, or even trying to get The Dark Knight 4 made, which would be about as guaranteed a $1 billion box office hit as DC could get. Thankfully, none of that has happened, which is a relief in a cinema world where no stone will be left unturned to bring back something people know, and where those returns feel increasingly cheap and like a cash-grab.

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Still, never say never, given all the other actors who have reprised their roles. But if Bale’s Batman were to return, it should only be under one condition: that Nolan himself is back. If the pair were to ever decide to return, and the director had an idea he believed in and thought was worthy of continuing the saga, then his decision would have to be respected and you’d have to assume (or at least hope) there’s a genuinely great story. Bale himself has said similar about playing Batman again, saying: “If Chris came to me and said, ‘I’ve got a new story,’ I’d be interested. But other than that, I don’t think so.”

Nolan has carte blanche to do just about anything he wants, as he’s a director whose name alone is a box office draw and brings awards season attention. It’s highly unlikely he’ll return to The Dark Knight, but if he did, then it’d clearly be the right time for it to return. Until that happens, hopefully it’s the one superhero franchise that will never rise again.

The Dark Knight trilogy is available to stream on HBO Max.

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