The Batman producer Dylan Clark reveals the ultimate goal of Matt Reeves' upcoming film: to top Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy as the best Batman film ever made. The film has been described as a back-to-basics detective story following the titular Caped Crusader in the second year of his crimefighting career. Like Nolan's films, The Batman is expected to adopt a more grounded approach to storytelling while forgoing the more supernatural aspects of Batman lore. For example, the Riddler (Paul Dano) – who is traditionally portrayed as a quipping smart aleck – is reimagined in The Batman as a psychotic serial killer inspired by the infamous Zodiac Killer.
Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy was a stark departure from the Batman films that had come before it. The director chose to eschew the surrealism and camp that had come to define the character in the 1990s while in the hands of Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher. His decision proved to resonate with audiences, cementing the Dark Knight trilogy not only as one of the most successful comic book movie franchises of all time, but also as one of the greatest cinematic trilogies of all time as well. Each movie in the trilogy was a critical and commercial success, grossing $2.4 billion by the end of its 7-year run.
In the wake of Nolan's Dark Knight films, the creators behind The Batman are giving their all to dethrone the legendary trilogy. In a recent interview with Empire, Clark revealed that he told Nolan directly: "we're trying to be the best Batman ever made, and we’re going to try to beat you." Check out the producer's full comments below:
I’ve said this to Chris Nolan directly: "Look, we’re trying to be the best Batman ever made, and we’re going to try to beat you." Matt [Reeves] is interested in pushing this character to his emotional depths and shaking him to his core.
Like 2019's Joker, The Batman takes place outside of the wider DCEU. This affords The Batman and its creators the same level of narrative freedom to tell the story that they want to tell without being beholden to events occurring elsewhere in an interconnected cinematic universe. This was an issue that plagued Ben Affleck's portrayal of Batman in Zack Snyder's DCEU films, being one of the main factors in truncating his tenure in the role.
Affleck's Batman made several appearances throughout the DCEU but never received a solo outing himself. As such, Reeves' film will be the first solo Batman film to release since Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises in 2011. While dethroning the Dark Knight trilogy is a tall order, striking promotional materials have already generated excitement from audiences; now, all The Batman has to do is stick the landing.
Source: Empire
