The Reason Christopher Nolan Made A Batman Origin Story For The Dark Knight Trilogy Is The Exact Same Reason The DCU Needs To Avoid It

:0:1

Christopher Nolan"s reasoning for making The Dark Knight trilogy feature Batman"s origin story also serves to explain why the DC Universe should avoid treading the same path. The Dark Knight trilogy is rightfully regarded as one of the best superhero movie series of all time, and has served to help define not only Batman, but also the genre itself and further expand what a superhero film could be. Even over a decade after the trilogy"s ending, conversations dissecting what made the franchise work and why are still commonplace, as are hopes that upcoming DC releases will mirror its success.
In the years since The Dark Knight trilogy"s release, director Christopher Nolan has shed more light on much of the process behind making the live-action Batman movies, and why certain decisions were made for this iteration of the iconic DC hero - especially when some went against the grain in many ways. Perhaps one of the most interesting of Nolan"s comments about this topic revolves around his decision to make the story begin with a grounded exploration of how a billionaire orphan could convincingly become a battle-hardened superhero who is able to be ready for anything.
Christopher Nolan Focused On Batman's Origin Story In The Dark Knight Trilogy Because It Was An "Interesting Gap" The Reason Nolan Decided To Show Batman Becoming The DC Hero In The Dark Knight Trilogy Is Crucial Close In an interview with filmcomment, Christopher Nolan explained his thought process for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight trilogy, stating: "Warner Bros. owned this wonderful character, and didn’t know what to do with it. It had sort of reached a dead end with its previous iteration. I got excited about the idea of filling in this interesting gap—no one had ever told the origin story of Batman." Sensing an opportunity to explore a key corner of the Caped Crusader"s story that hadn"t been fully dissected on the big screen, Nolan began work on Batman Begins, starting the iconic film series.
Nolan"s comments are well-founded, as the character"s on-screen history had never delved into the territory that The Dark Knight trilogy would go on to. While the 1989-1997 Batman movie series explored a wide range of stories and featured a wide range of villains - including showing the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne at the hands of Jack Napier before he became the Joker - this is ostensibly the closest the franchise got to focusing on Batman"s full origin story of becoming a superhero. The prior films - spinning off the 1940s serial and 1960s show respectively - focused on this side of things even less.
Given the place Batman"s cinematic history was at when it comes to this point, it"s clear Nolan"s excitement was well-founded. The story of how Batman became a hero is not only an integral part of what makes him interesting, but also a natural way to open up discussion for big conversations around the character, including his motivations and what effect his quest for justice has on Gotham. Though Batman"s origins had been explored prior many times in terms of his parents" deaths, his overall journey from a grieving child to a hardened vigilante hadn"t, making it a unique selling point for the Dark Knight trilogy.
Superhero Origin Stories In Movies Are Very Different 19 Years After Batman Begins The Superhero Genre Is In A Very Different Position Now Compared To When Batman Begins Released Close 2005"s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight trilogy helped popularize stories about the DC hero that focused on his personal narrative, exploring what it meant for Bruce Wayne to decide to become a masked crime fighter, and the impact of this decision on his life and the lives of those around him. As such, the story of how Bruce became Batman is something now far more familiar to audiences - in no small part because Batman Begins itself cemented the idea in the general public"s brain due to it and the larger film trilogy"s immense success.
To add to this, the idea of the superhero origin story itself now looks very different to how it did in the era where Nolan was coming up with the concept for Batman Begins. Though the movie was by no means the first film to focus on its protagonist becoming a superhero, the rise of the MCU and DCEU since then means audiences have now seen a far bigger number of this type of story, and thus have ostensibly grown to find it less awe-inspiring due to it almost appearing as though the current formula necessitates an origin story comes first, rather than the idea coming up naturally.
In this changing climate for the genre, it stands to reason that following Nolan"s comments and exploring other storylines that are an "interesting gap" for Batman and his now 80-year-old history is likely to engage audiences more than giving them the 20th superhero origin story they"ve seen in the past decade, especially given how well-established the Dark Knight"s now generally is at this point in time. This is doubly true for the DC Universe as well, given its current setup.
Why The DC Universe Is Better Off Not Focusing On Batman's Origin Story The DC Universe's Current Set Up Lends Itself Better To Covering Fresh Territory

The DC Universe is already delving into territory that other live-action releases historically have avoided, with projects like Swamp Thing and The Authority exploring characters who are relatively obscure to many cinema goers. This approach isn"t just for the less well known figures in DC"s collection, however, as the little that has been confirmed about the upcoming DCU Batman movie The Brave And The Bold also brings Damian Wayne - Bruce"s biological son and conventionally the fifth Robin in the lineup - to the franchise as well, with Bruce himself thus being an older version of the iconic DC hero.
Given the DC Universe is seemingly already aiming to combine the familiar with untapped territory for DC in terms of its adaptations - and this intention already appears to be a part of the approach with Batman given Damian"s presence - focusing away from Batman"s origin story and more towards other stories that haven"t received the same attention historically could really help make this version of the Dark Knight something special. Indeed, this would replicate Nolan"s aims with The Dark Knight trilogy itself, taking the character"s on-screen story in a new direction that still mirrors past successes.
Your changes have been saved

Email is sent
Email has already been sent
Follow Followed Follow with Notifications Follow Unfollow

[圖擷取自網路，如有疑問請私訊]