In 2012's The Dark Knight Rises, filmmaker Christopher Nolan turned to Tom Hardy to bring a new, grounded version of Bane to life on screen.
The actor put a unique new spin on the villain, and one was undoubtedly needed after Batman & Robin in 1997. Bane's sometimes hard-to-understand voice divided opinions, but the Venom: The Last Dance star was undeniably memorable in the role. Hardy's take on the villain was also physically dominant enough to leave us all reeling when he "broke the Bat."
Talking to Entertainment Tonight, Hardy was asked about recent reports that DC Studios is planning a Bane/Deathstroke team-up movie (which may or may not be a Secret Six feature).
So, would he be open to reprising the role in the DCU? "Oh, hell yeah. I'd love to," the actor said. "But I don't know if that's for me. I did my run, let somebody else have a go."
In a separate conversation with Fox's Jake Hamilton, Hardy reflected on the complex process of creating Bane's voice for the 2012 movie and the pressure that came with following in the footsteps of Heath Ledger's Joker.
"One of [the challenges] was the introduction of a new villain after the Joker had played so profoundly, to the fan lore, as well, that being accepted as the new villain was going to have to take an element of risk, which was non-negotiable anyway."
"Christopher Nolan is such a mastermind, he had a really specific idea. And it laid down the pipe to go, 'Okay, do I do a generic baddie voice?' I can calculate and create something that’s cold and dark and sinister with no light, no color, no fun. Or, Bane is Latinx, technically, so I had to look at that option and think, 'How can I justify this?'"
"And I looked at Romani Gipsy, in Latin origins, and I found Bartley Gorman, the King of the Gypsies, a bare-knuckle fighter. And he has a mellifluous accent, which is all over the place of him being a traveler. There are lots of different sounds. And I played that hymn for Chris, and I said, ‘Listen, we could get really laughed at here. This could be ridiculous."
"But it’s an interesting sound silhouette and it might work because physically, he’s like a gorilla, he’s primal, he’s dangerous and scary, but he’s very florid when he speaks. He likes his own voice, so perhaps we should add some color to it."
We'd imagine Gunn plans to bring Bane to life primarily with visual effects, particularly if he's a hulking brute akin to the version seen on the page.
Whether this team-up project will become a reality remains to be seen, especially after James Gunn's recent warning that not every DCU movie and TV show in development is necessarily guaranteed to happen.
Would you like to see more of Hardy's Bane on screen?