The Flash: why is Christian Bale’s Batman not in the film?

In the realm of the multiverse The Flash with Ezra Miller, the Batman by Christian Bale has been sorely missed, and there’s a very simple reason for that.

WARNING, SPOILERS ON THE FLASH!

In 2021, Marvel has swept away everything in its path with the multiverse of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw the return of versions of Spider-Man played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Almost $2 billion later, the cameo trend has been confirmed with the notable passage of Patrick Stewart in particular in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

So it didn’t take long for the DC competitor to want his piece of the pie and chose carnage. The Flash to join the party. We even tried to explain all the cameos (and those that are missing) from a film that was overflowing with unlikely appearances. And if Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck and even George Clooney (!) have returned to the skin of Batman, Christian Bale did not deign to show the end of his cape, and for a very simple reason.

the cameo rises

Indeed, the iconic actor of Christopher Nolan’s cult trilogy explained to Screen Rant in June 2022 during the promotion of Thor: Love and Thunder why we are not likely to see him again so soon in the Dark Knight costume:

“I made a pact with Chris Nolan. We were like, “Hey, listen. Let’s do three movies, if we ever get the chance to do them. And then we stop, let’s not pull the rope.” And for me, it would be quite an event if Chris Nolan said to himself one day: “You know what, I still have a story to tell.” And if he ever wanted to tell this story with me, then I would be there. »

The condition is therefore set: if ever the actor were to take over the role, he would only do it in the company of the director of the trilogy Dark Knight. And we can easily understand that he wants to keep intact the legacy of films that have revolutionized the genre and greatly contributed to the rise of superheroes in cinema, alongside Spiderman by Sam Raimi, X-Men of Bryan Singer and the Iron Man by Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau.

A well deserved retirement

Moreover, it would have been quite surreal, perhaps even more so than for George Clooney, to see the character from such a styled trilogy return amidst the narrative and aesthetic chaos that is the disaster of The Flash. It is also hard to imagine Warner trying to approach Christian Bale, after the departure of Christopher Nolan from the studio to join Universal.

But between the grotesque digital appearances of Christopher Reeve and Nicolas Cage, the visual effects worthy of the accident of the Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns or the double number of Ezra Miller, the film would not have been a bad surprise. We have therefore avoided the worst and the happy memory of Christopher Nolan’s films remains safe and sound. For the most curious, The Flash is still in theatersand for the more patient, Oppenheimer will land on French screens on July 19, 2023.