Christian Bale is open to returning as villain Gorr in Thor: Love and Thunder. Despite the fact that two Batman reboots have happened since Bale stepped out of the role, there are still those who would wish to see more of the actor’s version of the Dark Knight, which goes to show how impactful Nolan’s trilogy truly was.
Despite the success of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, it took less than a year for Warner Bros. to decide to reboot the character as a part of its new DCEU shared universe. Three years after that, Ben Affleck debuted as the iconic Caped Crusader in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the Zack Snyder sequel to Man of Steel. Affleck's run as Batman ended up being shorter than expected for a multitude of reasons, and while the actor still has one more DCEU appearance under the cowl left in The Flash, 2022 has already seen another Batman arise in Matt Reeves' hugely successful The Batman reboot starring Robert Pattinson.
At a time in which both Marvel and DC are diving into the multiverse and bringing back legacy characters and actors from previous franchises—as seen with Michael Keaton’s reprisal as Batman in The Flash—it makes sense for Christian Bale to be asked about a possible return to the role. Bale always made it clear that he would only play Batman/Bruce Wayne as long as Christopher Nolan had a story to tell. However, even if the studio somehow convinced Nolan to return for another Batman sequel, bringing Bale back would risk undoing his incarnation of Batman's happy ending. Part of what made Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy so different from other interpretations of the character is that it established Bruce Wayne’s time as Batman as something finite, as would be the case in a realistic world. Bale’s Batman journey involved him becoming a symbol, and The Dark Knight Rises’ ending perfectly captured that, with no need for Bale to return.
Unlike Michael Keaton, or even Ben Affleck, whose runs as Batman were relatively short, Christan Bale played the character for seven years and got to see his Bruce Wayne completing a great character arc. There would obviously be a huge interest in seeing Bale return to the role, especially if somehow connected with the DCEU's multiverse, but any possible storyline involving his Bruce Wayne would demand retconning the ending of The Dark Knight Rises. Should Nolan ever return to the franchise, it would make much more sense if he were to continue the story of John Blake (Joseph Gordon Levitt) who presumably takes on the Batman mantle at the end of the film. Even so, there is a charm in how The Dark Knight Rises ends, with nothing but a tease that Batman will live on past Bruce Wayne, and there might be no need to get back to that story.
Moments like Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield returning as Spider-Man in No Way Home make it difficult not to imagine what Christian Bale’s return would be like. However, even with the current trend of the multiverse bringing different generations of characters together for the first time, Bale’s Batman is better left in his Dark Knight Rises retirement with Selina Kyle. If Christopher Nolan also thinks that way, then a Christian Bale Batman return is highly unlikely.
