Christopher Nolan Advised Batman Begins Writer Not To Work on Ben Affleck’s Batman Movies: “It’s Confusing”

Before co-writing 2005’s Batman Begins with Christopher Nolan, screenwriter and comic book guru David Goyer was best known for penning an adaptation of another creature of the night: Blade. Goyer wrote the Blade trilogy starring Wesley Snipes as the daywalking Marvel vampire hunter, and boarded the then-untitled Batman reboot after indie-oriented director Nolan — who helmed the psychological thrillers Memento and Insomnia — signed on to redefine the Dark Knight on the big screen and bring the character back to his roots in the wake of 1997’s campy Batman & Robin.

Warner Bros. tapped Goyer in 2003, when planned franchise restarts like Batman vs. Superman (which was to be directed by Troy‘s Wolfgang Petersen from a script by Seven‘s Andrew Kevin Walker) and Batman: Year One (Frank Miller’s adaptation of his seminal Batman origin story that was to be directed by Requiem for a Dream‘s Darren Aronofsky) fell through at the studio. Goyer would go on to share a story credit with Nolan on 2008’s The Dark Knight and 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, which the director co-wrote with his brother Jonathan Nolan.

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Goyer scripted 2013’s Man of Steel, the Superman reboot directed by Zack Snyder and produced by Nolan (who also received a story credit), and 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which he co-wrote with Argo Oscar winner Chris Terrio. But in a new interview marking the 20th anniversary of Batman Begins, Goyer says his collaborator for three Batman movies advised him against writing the reboot that followed.

“All the time on social media, I see [people saying], ‘They should have Goyer do the new Blade,’” the screenwriter said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, referring to Marvel Studios’ long-stalled reboot that has Mahershala Ali attached to star. “Part of me thinks it would be fun, but part of me thinks, ‘I did, so far, the definitive Blade, and it’s a mistake.’”

He then recalled Nolan advising him not to work on the post-Dark Knight trilogy films set in the new continuity that introduced Ben Affleck as the caped crusader. “Just because it’s confusing,” Goyer explained. “‘We did one, just stick with that.’”

It was reported in 2013 that Goyer signed a three-picture deal to write Man of Steel, the sequel, and a Justice League movie. The sequel became Batman v Superman, which pit Affleck’s Dark Knight against Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel, and 2017’s Justice League later materialized with a script by Terrio and Joss Whedon from a story by Terrio & Snyder.

In 2020, Warner Bros. hired Goyer and Justin Rhodes (Terminator: Dark Fate) to write the Green Lantern Corps movie that had been announced as part of a 10-movie slate back in 2014. Described as “Lethal Weapon in space” with Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart, that project eventually fell apart, and James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios is willing Lanterns into existence for HBO.

“I’m pretty much still not in a comic book place,” Goyer, who also co-wrote 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, added of his upcoming projects that includes the Apple TV+ series Murderbot and Foundation. The July 3 premiere of the second and final season of The Sandman, a DC adaptation that Goyer developed for Netflix, will be the end of his time in the comic book sandbox — at least for now.

“I’ve got a new project that I’ll be going to market with next month that is not comic book,” Goyer said, adding “it’s still genre, but not comic book [based].”