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He boldly moved when Christian Bale hung up his cape after The Dark Knight Rises. He turned down a fourth Batman film pitched by Warner Bros., sticking to Christopher Nolan’s vision for the trilogy. “Let’s not stretch too far and become overindulgent,” he declared, and honestly, who could argue with that?
The Dark Knight trilogy was no ordinary collection. It redefined what comic book movies could be, raking in $2.4B worldwide. Bale’s portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman was phenomenal, and each film built on the last like a perfectly constructed Gotham skyscraper. The final movie left audiences with a poignant image: Bruce Wayne chilling in Florence with Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway). A killer way to exit, right? But hold on—studios weren’t ready to let their golden goose fly away.
After The Dark Knight Rises, Bale recalled the studio’s eager pitch. “When they came [to us after Batman Begins] and said, ‘You want to go make another?’ It was fantastic!” he reminisced, full of nostalgia. But Bale and Nolan had a pact: three films, no more. When the studio floated the idea of a fourth, Bale quickly squashed it. “No. We have to stick to Chris’ dream, which was always to, hopefully, do a trilogy,” he explained. Classy move, Bale. He wasn’t about to go rogue.
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