Batman Spinoff Focused on Bane Pitched After the Success of Joker

It looks like Warner Bros. was considering continuing down a path of villain movies, based on a […]

June 3, 2020, 7:38pm

It looks like Warner Bros. was considering continuing down a path of villain movies, based on a character from Batman’s popular line up of baddies. In a new report, it looks like Bane was almost next in line to have his own movie following the success of Joker. However, the report claims a Bane movie was merely an idea for a pitch, so it may not have been presented to Warner Bros. executives, at all. Still, following the success of Joker, the idea of DC Comics villains seeing the light of day in one-off films is an interesting notion.

“A potential project for the villain would’ve seen a must more serious vision on the big screen. After the surprise success of Joaquin Phoenix’s award winning Joker, Heroic Hollywood has exclusively learned that there was going to be an attempt to pitch a Bane standalone film to DC executives,” Heroic Hollywood’s Umberto Gonzalez reports. In May, Gonzalez was the first reporter to catch wind of Henry Cavill’s Superman getting another go and Zack Snyder’s Justice League being a possibility. “In a similar way to the Todd Philips film, it could’ve offered filmmaker a chance to explore the villain’s psyche with a character study, although hopefully with a little more brawling,” Gonzalez said in a video on YouTube. “Much like Joker avoided leaning on the cape and cowl too much, it’s possible that Bane’s solo film would not have featured the iconic hero.” There is no indication that the pitch would call for Tom Hardy to reprise his role as Bane from The Dark Knight Rises.

While the progress of the film is unknown, Bane is currently the subject of many jokes on the popular animated Harley Quinn series. Meanwhile, The Batman is gearing up to get back into production in London. Robert Pattinson’s Batman movie has a hefty list of villains already – but Bane is not one of them.

Videos by ComicBook.com

“A potential pitch for the film would have loosely used the Vengeance of Bane story from the comics as the basis for the script,” Gonzalez said. “The plot would’ve introduced Bane to the DC Universe revealing that his tragic origin began before he was even born. Since Batman is key to his motivation across the arc, the Bat could’ve existed somewhere in the film, even if it was just as a looming presence over Gotham City.”

Would you like to see a Bane movie or would you rather see the villain in a sequel to The Batman? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram and Twitter!