‘Man of Steel’ Almost Took Place In ‘The Dark Knight’ Universe With Joseph Gordon-Levitt As Batman

superman

Warner Bros.


Of all the “what ifs?” to come out of the comic book movie industry over the last decade or so, one of the most fascinating is pondering what the DC Extended Universe would look like today had Warner Bros. not panicked and rushed into the DCEU in an effort to catch up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That is, obviously, not the reality we find ourselves in, as the DCEU finds itself essentially undergoing a soft reboot with The Flash in 2022, not even a decade after Man of Steel first hit theaters in 2013.  The reason that it finds itself in such a position, of course, is due to the mixed results the franchise has produced thus far.

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It wasn’t always meant to be this way, though, as Zack Snyder has recently revealed that instead of casting a new Batman for a new cinematic universe, there were discussions of looping Man of Steel into the universe established by Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight trilogy, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt — who seemingly takes on the cape and cowl in the closing moments of The Dark Knight Rises — as Batman.

“It was not 100% off the table. We did talk about it a little bit. I think that it’s difficult and it would have been interesting because that would have meant – doing the math – that the Batman… and maybe that’s why we didn’t do it. If we had done that the Batman in this movie… it would have been Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Which could have been cool.” [via Happy Sad Confused]

Snyder’s comments only add further fuel to my theory that he wasn’t originally hired to launch the DCEU, but was instead tasked with doing what Christopher Nolan did for Batman, for Superman.

Alas, DC will be starting over with a new Batman and a new Superman once again, as Robert Pattinson is set to take over the role in 2022’s The Batman, while reports indicate that Warner Bros’ next Superman film will feature a Black Clark Kent.

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