Christian Bale, who makes his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Thor: Love and Thunder, is open to repeating his role as Batman with one stipulation, it must be at Christopher Nolan’s request. Bale would take the call if the director had more stories to tell after starring in the director’s hugely successful Dark Knight trilogy.
Bale stated in his interview with ComicBook that no efforts have been made to include Bale in the group. He observes that no one has gotten in touch with him. But if Warner Bros officials explored the idea and brought it up to the renowned actor, Bale wouldn’t be against it—but only if Christopher Nolan returned to the DC universe as well.
Bale said, “For me, that would be a matter of Chris Nolan, if he ever decided to do it again and if he chose to come my way again, then yeah, I would consider it because that was always our pact between each other is we would just stick to it. We said we would only ever make three. And then I said to myself, and I’d only ever make it with Chris.”
The Dark Knight Rises certainly closes on a conclusive tone, despite its melancholy last moment. As Bale points out, the trilogy was intended to be a trilogy, therefore in their opinion, there is little need to extend the plot. Bale has undoubtedly had no trouble advancing to other movies. Bale was recently nominated for an Oscar for his lead performances in American Hustle and Vice as well as his supporting turn in The Big Short, in addition to the aforementioned Thor: Love and Thunder.
Bale has discussed the potential for a fourth Batman feature before, but he sounds more upbeat now than he did in 2019, when he said that Nolan’s aim was to complete a trilogy and that if they proceeded with a second film, it would “stretch too far and become overindulgent.” Bale hasn’t worn the Batsuit since being informed that his “services were no longer necessary” at the moment, and there doesn’t appear to be any pressing need for the actor to do so.
Bale is therefore not now in need of high-profile work, and he would probably only consider playing Batman once there was something interesting or exciting about doing it all over again, especially with his regular co-star. Bale’s phone is buzzing, but Warner Bros. isn’t calling him at the time. But if Nolan turned on the Bat-Signal, Bale wouldn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a second.