Though Ben Affleck and his unfortunate back tattoo have now been formally tasked with portraying Batman for (at least) the next few years, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder was apparently not entirely against bringing Christian Bale back into the fold. Of course, as Bale’s Batman exists in a far different (and entirely separate) universe than that of Affleck and his back tattoo, there would have been a slight catch to a Bale appearance.
"This is a total and opposite reality from the Chris Nolan movies," Snyder tells FilmInk in a recent interview. "It’s another universe, so we couldn’t hire Christian Bale if we wanted to, because he doesn’t exist in our world." Okay. Sure. But what about the truth, Zack Snyder? "Maybe we could hire him to play another part," Snyder theorized before finally admitting the sadly botched plan: "We did talk about that briefly. I just wanted to hire Christian to play another part to make that obvious."
As for Bale's take on the could-obviously-beat-Superman-with-his-eyes-closed caped crusader, the Knight of Cups star recently revealed to Yahoo Movies that he was actually pretty dissatisfied with his own performance. "I didn’t quite manage what I hoped I would through the trilogy," Bale said, as quoted by the Guardian. "Chris [Nolan] did, but my own sense of self is like, 'I didn’t quite nail it.'"
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, clearly featuring absolutely zero Christian Bale action, hits theaters on March 25. Justice League: Part One, now featuring a former Spider-Man veteran, follows close behind in November of next year.
