The Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer gives his take on Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy was the last word in “dark and gritty” Batman. Until the arrival of Reeves’ even-more-dark-and-gritty Caped Crusader movie in 2022.
Batman of course had first gone campy thanks to Tim Burton’s early ‘90s films, and super-campy thanks to Joel Schumacher’s entries in the series. But dark-and-gritty Batman proved the best kind in the eyes of many fans, thanks in large part to Nolan’s 2008 film The Dark Knight, its star Christian Bale and its main villain Joker as played by Heath Ledger. Of course Batman later took a bizarre ten-year detour through the DCEU and Snyderverse before re-emerging in properly dark-and-gritty form with Reeves’ 2022 film, starring Robert Pattinson as Gotham's vigilante protector. And box office numbers for The Batman – over $750 million worldwide – certainly seem to reaffirm that grim and realistic is the way to go when it comes to DC’s most profitable superhero.
Indeed The Batman shares enough tonal and storytelling similarities with the Dark Knight trilogy that comparisons between the two are inevitable. For his part, Dark Knight trilogy co-writer Goyer isn’t here to slam on the dark Batman that came after his and Nolan’s dark Batman. Instead, Goyer sings the praises of Reeves’ The Batman, saying to THR:
So I just saw [The Batman] fairly recently in Prague, and I didn’t know exactly what to expect or what I would think of it. I saw it with a number of my crew members on Foundation, and they were all expecting me to hate it. But I really enjoyed it a lot. (Laughs.) It was a fun experience. I really like [Robert] Pattinson’s Batman, and I like what they did with the Riddler. Reeves is a really good filmmaker, so I was in for the ride.
Goyer in fact is still deeply invested in the Batman universe as the creator of the current Spotify narrative podcast Batman Unburied. Indeed, as the co-writer of four Batman films including the DCEU entry Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Goyer arguably is more than anyone else an authority on what making a dark-and-gritty Batman project is all about. And now he’s given his official seal of approval to Reeves’ take. It’s telling that Goyer even singles out The Batman’s version of The Riddler for special praise, given the debt that character owes to The Dark Knight’s equally terrifying take on the Joker.
Of course Goyer’s own personal take won’t be enough to stop any arguments that may be on-going between different factions of Batman fandom over the relative merits of the Dark Knight trilogy and Reeves’ The Batman. What is certain though is that “dark-and-gritty” Batman is here to stay. Indeed The Batman is now getting its own sequel, and there’s no reason to believe Reeves will stray far from the formula he employed on his first foray in the land of the Caped Crusader. Goyer for his part can take his own little piece of the credit for establishing that formula in the first place, and may in fact feel a little like a proud father as he ponders the massive box office success of The Batman.
Source: THR
