THE BATMAN - PART II Enters Pre-Production; Principal Photography Expected To Begin On January 1, 2026

@bobevanz - yes!

@Patient2670 -

"...but it was Nolan who ultimately got to decide on who he wanted to work with."

Can you provide a link to a credible source?

It was absolutely Zack Snyder who took the studio in a different direction. The following article quotes Zack Snyder himself to make the point (link below).

"You see, according to a recent interview with FilmInk, Snyder explains that certain Warner Bros executives could simply not grasp the idea that the new films were taking place in an entirely different universe than the Christopher Nolan films, and had repeatedly asked whether or not they could get Christian Bale to return as Batman. In order to thwart that idea and make sure it was understood that this was not the Nolan Universe, it seems Snyder wanted to offer Bale a brand new role, like maybe Wayne’s butler Alfred, just to make it 100% clear that this is not the same Batman that Bale played, and to hammer home the different universe notion to the executives. In Snyder’s own words:

“This is a total and opposite reality from the Chris Nolan movies. It’s another universe, so we couldn’t hire Christian Bale if we wanted to, because he doesn’t exist in our world. Maybe we could hire him to play another part. We did talk about that briefly. I just wanted to hire Christian to play another part to make that obvious. Christian could play, like, Alfred with age makeup. No! Of course not. But you know what I mean. Even people at the studio would say, ‘Who are you getting from the other movies?’ And I was like, ‘Hey, come on guys, let’s all understand, it’s a different world.’ In the Batman universe that Chris Nolan created, Superman would have a hard time existing. That that’s why we did a reboot on the universe, so we could allow these characters to exist together. We needed to do that to have Batman exist in this world.”

What is frustrating here is the idea that the suits at Warner Bros seem to have no idea what is going on in their superhero movies, nor understand the reasoning behind the ‘Batman’ reboot going on with ‘Batman V Superman.

https://sciencefiction.com/2016/03/10/bale-out-zach-snyder-discusses-casting-christina-bale-in-dceu-just-not-as-batman/

@Patient2670 - Three things:

1) The Slash film article is not hard journalism. It is problematic which i will demonstrate later since the writer is not following certain editorial principals and rely on conjecture rather than facts. The writer in this case literally writes his own opinion at the end of the piece writing "Would Scott's version have been more amenable to Donner? It seems likely, and while pleasing Richard Donner is absolutely not the approach a filmmaker should be taking, I'd argue it might be a tad better than Zack Snyder's "Wake the f**k up" approach to wish-fulfilment fantasy movie-making.";

2) The article makes it seem that Nolan did not get the director he actually wanted and was following a Warner Brothers mandate. It states "Perhaps, then, it was enough for Nolan that Snyder did not share Richard Donner's reverence for Superman, or any superheroes for that matter, as that happened to fit what Warner Bros. was looking for at the time; and

3) If you utilize less credible sources then we will eventually get into dueling articles about what actually happened. For example here is an article that claims Zack Snyder was chosen by the studio for legal reasons.

Zack Snyder Was Never WB’s First Choice for Man of Steel – Studio Hired Him to Avoid Lawsuit as Their Preferred Director Would’ve Taken Years to Develop the Film
https://fandomwire.com/zack-snyder-was-never-wbs-first-choice-for-man-of-steel-studio-hired-him-to-avoid-lawsuit-as-their-preferred-director-wouldve-taken-years-to-develop-the-film/

As for the other points:
The Hollywood Reporter article does NOT identify Nolan as the one who nixed the idea of MOS and The Dark Knight Trilogy. Snyder uses the term "we" but does not identify who that means. Is it his wife who helps produce films or a brain trust set up to bring the film to life...etc.

"Not to mention that Bale had said several times that he had no interest in playing Batman again if Nolan wasn't directing."

That is what EVERY ACTOR says. I could go through the very long list of actors who claimed they were done with a role only for them to come back to it multiple times (Sigourney Weaver's RIPLEY, Daniel Craig's JAMES BOND, Hugh Jackman's WOLVERINE) and so on. In fact Christian Bale himself said he was "not interested" in Marvel films. Take a guess how that turned out. It is a posturing strategy in most (not all) cases so they can negotiate the most favorable contract terms for themselves.

Yes! The studio is the problem because they had a huge hit in the dark Knight films and it is film making malpractice that they did not build on it with a ready made crossover that was perfectly positioned to be an epic start to the DC film universe. But I have to fault Zack Snyder for not going with the obvious direction and choosing to undermine what the studio wanted to do. That is what started the snowball rolling which we still have not recovered from.

@Ryguy88 -

How do you expect him to know what month it is when he obviously never even seems to know what year it is?

@Thing94 - October 1st.

@mountainman -

I just hope to see a great adaptation of Neal Adams tragic Man-Bat on the big screen some day.

@Bucky74 -

I would like the 3rd movie to feature the Joker and Man-Bat.

@DocSpock -

@TheJok3r -

I'll be a heist movie where the Joker makes off with Batman's dentures from his bedside table.

@Gambito - Hopefully they get someone equally as talented for Wonder Woman, the third of the trinity.

@elgaz - I hope they at least strike a balance between the Dark Knight seeking vengeance Batman and the more heroic symbol of hope and justice in Gotham. I’d he reverts back then there is no character growth anymore. Also, after the amazing Penguin series, Oz deserves a bigger role here