Nolan rules out Batman / Superman crossover

Christopher Nolan has cast doubt on the possibility of seeing both Batman and Superman in the same movie, stating that in his universe Batman is the only superhero.

“I don’t think our Batman, our Gotham, lends itself to that kind of cross-fertilization,” he told The Los Angeles Times .

“It goes back to one of the first things we wrangled with when we first started putting the story together: Is this a world in which comic books already exist? Is this a world in which superheroes already exist?

“If you think of "Batman Begins" and you think of the philosophy of this character trying to reinvent himself as a symbol, we took the position -- we didn’t address it directly in the film, but we did take the position philosophically -- that superheroes simply don’t exist.

“If they did, if Bruce knew of Superman or even of comic books, then that’s a completely different decision that he’s making when he puts on a costume in an attempt to become a symbol.”

Theatrics grows out of Gotham

Nolan however did concede that his version of the Batman universe is a world that can now support more theatrical antics thanks to the actions of Bruce.

“Of course, you see what we’re able to do with Joker in this film is that he is able to be quite theatrical because we set up Batman as an example of intense theatricality in Gotham.

“It starts to grow outward from Batman. But the premise we began with is that Batman was creating a wholly original thing.”