Despite the many times Christopher Nolan has spoken about The Dark Knight Rises in terms of concluding a trilogy, there are still fans hoping the director will change his mind and return for a fourth outing.
However, Nolan has been speaking about the future of Batman, and couldn’t have made it more clear that he regards his part of the story as complete.
“For me, The Dark Knight Rises is specifically and definitely the end of the Batman story as I wanted to tell it,” says Nolan. “The open-ended nature of the film is simply a very important thematic idea that we wanted to get into the movie, which is that Batman is a symbol. He can be anybody, and that was very important to us.
“Not every Batman fan will necessarily agree with that interpretation of the philosophy of the character, but for me it all comes back to the scene between Bruce Wayne and Alfred in the private jet in Batman Begins , where the only way that I could find to make a credible characterization of a guy transforming himself into Batman is if it was as a necessary symbol, and he saw himself as a catalyst for change.
“Therefore it was a temporary process, maybe a five-year plan that would be enforced for symbolically encouraging the good of Gotham to take back their city," he continued to explain. "To me, for that mission to succeed, it has to end, so this is the ending for me, and as I say, the open-ended elements are all to do with the thematic idea that Batman was not important as a man, he’s more than that. He’s a symbol, and the symbol lives on.”
Doesn’t sound like he’ll be directing Justice League then, does it? The Dark Knight Rises is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 3 December 2012.
