Christian Bale: Done with Batman?

Actor Christian Bale is apparently done working on the Christopher Nolan related Batman projects. Bale’s last work on the series will be in next summer’s The Dark Knight Rises Christopher Nolan was the one who brought the series to new heights and it appears that Nolan may be done with the Batman related projects as well. A number of people out there are not sure what the next step for the Caped Crusader will be and who could possibly pick up the storylines for any future installments.
I think most hardcore comic book fans were not happy with the Val Kilmer and George Clooney installments of Batman because they viewed those films to be too kid friendly and so much unlike the actual comic book.

With the death of Heath Ledger since the completion of the last film, it may have taken some of the steam out of some of the other concepts that were being thrown around. The Joker character certainly did come alive with Heath Ledger’s portrayal, almost to the point that some of the people who had worked in the role in the past were seemingly critical of the fact that the role was written so well and accurately this time around.

I would argue that fans will not be happy with any kind of reload that a future creative team plans to do with Batman. Nolan, the creative team and all of the actors may have set a bar that otherwise cannot be reached. A consumer of all things Batman may not consider it to be news that Bale will be hanging up the cape, but this sort of thing has to be told to the masses. I personally enjoyed Christian Bale’s work in films like The Fighter and will be interested in what comes next for him.