It’s been over a year since Christopher Nolan brought the curtain down on his Batman trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises, and now that Warner Bros. has launched its DC Movie Universe with Man of Steel, it’s surely only a matter of time before we see the Dark Knight back on the screen, either as part of the long-rumoured Justice League ensemble, a World’s Finest pairing, or in his own rebooted solo movie. And, according to Batman-on-Film, the studio could be looking at adapting the DC Animated Universe series Batman Beyond for the Caped Crusader’s next live-action outing.
Set in the same world as the classic Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond was produced by Glen Murakami (Beware the Batman) alongside TAS team of Alan Burnett, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm and took place in a futuristic ‘Neo-Gotham’ where an aged Bruce Wayne mentors the teenager Terry McGinnis as the new Batman. The series ran between 1999 and 2001, and was previously considered as a live-action movie back in 2000, with Warner Bros. hiring Alan Burnett and Paul Dini to craft a screenplay alongside director Boaz Yakin (Remember the Titans), with further creative input from cyberpunk novelist Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon). However, plans were put on hold when Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream) and Frank Miller (Sin City) signed on for the ultimately aborted adaptation of Miller’s Batman: Year One.
Given the set-up of Batman Beyond, an adaptation would appear to offer the studio a chance to continue Nolan’s Dark Knight saga by having Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake donning the cape and cowl and Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne serving as his mentor. However, BoF’s report goes on to state that this is not the case, and would instead be entirely separate from the Nolanverse. Nevertheless, it’s important to stress that this is an unconfirmed rumour at present, and in all honesty it would be a huge surprise if Warner Bros. chose to have its ‘DC Movie Universe’ Batman as anyone other than Bruce Wayne. So, perhaps we should take this report with a pinch of salt…
Originally published July 18, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
