Why Man of Steel & Snyder's DCEU Didn't Connect With The Dark Knight

Following Zack Snyder's comments about how The Dark Knight Rises, that was when Warner Bros. began to invest in a shared universe, starting with Man of Steel.

Nolan consulted as a producer with Snyder, as David S. Goyer, who worked on The Dark Knight trilogy, had pitched an idea for a Superman reboot. Despite Nolan's involvement with Man of Steel, it never opened the door for Christian Bale's Batman to somehow the DCEU. But several years later, Snyder revealed in an interview that there were discussions, in the beginning, to have The Dark Knight films connect to his shared universe. Had it happened, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's John 'Robin' Blake, who seemingly picked up Bruce Wayne's mantle at the end of The Dark Knight Rises, would have been Batman in the DCEU. But ultimately, Ben Affleck was ultimately cast as the DCEU's Batman, and that was for the best - both for Nolan's films and Snyder's universe.

Since Man of Steel's start, Nolan was vocal about his Batman films never fitting the new universe that Snyder created for Warner Bros. The emphasis of The Dark Knight trilogy was how it was heavily grounded in reality, which didn't leave any room for fantastical elements that came with something like Superman and the Justice League. That is primarily why a villain like Bane was re-imagined where he wasn't a super-villain that used venom to increase his strength and size. With almost all of Batman's gadgets, suits, and Batmobile (the Tumbler), it was done from a realistic approach. Even if Gordon-Levitt's Blake were the new Batman in the DCEU, the Nolanverse would never, in tone, fit what the Snyderverse later became.

Christian Bale Batman and Henry Cavill Superman

If the Nolan trilogy had become canon to the DCEU, it would undo a lot that the filmmaker had spent almost a decade crafting. As the DCEU has explored magic, aliens, and metahumans, it wouldn't have meshed well with the reality that Nolan had established. In all of his Batman movies, there was never even a single allusion to something as extraordinary as a Themysciran having fought in World War I, as one example. The mere idea of a man dressed up as a bat and fighting crime in Gotham City was, in Nolan's universe, the closest to a superhero they ever got. Despite Nolan and Goyer's influence, The Dark Knight movies would never make sense to live in the same world as Man of Steel and the later DCEU installments.

While it's logical that they were at least considering it at the beginning, it was the right call to leave The Dark Knight trilogy alone after 2012. An issue to consider is if Batman and Superman's first time together in live-action weren't between Bruce and Clark, it'd likely be something many fans wouldn't respond well to, had that been the case for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. If Warner Bros. would ever want to revisit the Nolanverse, the better approach would be to have a Multiverse crossover storyline, establishing Bale's Batman on his own Earth. So in the long run, it was wise for Man of Steel to start fresh as the beginning of the DCEU, while leaving The Dark Knight trilogy be.

NEXT: Why The Batman Needs To Avoid The Dark Knight's Powers Restriction