Nolan's BATMAN will not join The JUSTICE LEAGUE

Nolan's Batman won't join JUSTICE LEAGUE
By Rob M. Worley / mania.com
Source: L.A. Times Hero Complex blog

When Warner Bros. announced plans for a 'Justice League' movie, it drew plenty of consternation from fans. With Batman and Superman just relaunched as stand-along franchises, did it make sense to have different versions of those characters appearing in a separate franchise. When the project began to fall apart, rumor had it that grumbling from Christopher Nolan's camp was a contributing factor.

In an exclusive interview with the L.A. Times, Nolan talks about the prospect of his version Batman finding its way into a superhero crossover, in the same way we're seeing Marvel cross pollinate their movies. Nolan told the Times that the story he's told thus far does not fit into a larger universe.

"I don’t think our Batman, our Gotham, lends itself to that kind of cross-fertilization. It goes back to one of the first things we wrangled with when we first started putting the story together: Is this a world in which comic books already exist? Is this a world in which superheroes already exist?

"If you think of 'Batman Begins' and you think of the philosophy of this character trying to reinvent himself as a symbol, we took the position -- we didn’t address it directly in the film, but we did take the position philosophically -- that superheroes simply don’t exist. If they did, if Bruce knew of Superman or even of comic books, then that’s a completely different decision that he’s making when he puts on a costume in an attempt to become a symbol. It’s a paradox and a conundrum, but what we did is go back to the very original concept and idea of the character. In his first appearances, he invents himself as a totally original creation," Nolan said.

"It would have given a very, very different meaning to what Bruce Wayne was leaving home to do and coming back home to do and putting on the costume for and all the rest. We dealt with on its own terms: What does Batman mean to Bruce Wayne, what is he trying to achieve? He has not been influenced by other superheroes. Of course, you see what we’re able to do with Joker in this film is that he is able to be quite theatrical because we set up Batman as an example of intense theatricality in Gotham. It starts to grow outward from Batman. But the premise we began with is that Batman was creating a wholly original thing."

So, if the 'Justice League' movie ever does get made, and if Nolan has anything to say about it, it'll stay separate from his own bat-franchise.