Why A Christian Bale DCEU Flash Cameo Makes No Sense

Despite the opportunity afforded by The Flash‘s trip into the DCEU multiverse, Christian Bale returning for a cameo as Batman would not make sense. No matter what the appeal – and it would probably be the DCEU’s biggest feat by some distance – Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy ending simply leaves no space for it to be possible. And worse, Bale reappearing would do a disservice to Nolan’s controversial end.

The Flash will include at least two Batman actors with Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton reprising their roles as the Caped Crusader thanks to the story focusing on the multiverse. And in an inspired bit of advanced marketing, director Andy Muschietti has confirmed the story means that “all the cinematic iterations that we’ve seen before are valid,” suggesting there’s potential for other Batman iterations to appear. Naturally, Robert Pattinson’s upcoming take for Matt Reeves’ The Batman would make the most sense to Warner Bros. but there are other previous Batman actors out there who are yet to be confirmed as appearing or not.

Given that Christian Bale is the most successful Batman actor of all time, critically and commercially, his name was never going to be far from discussions. The problem for fans holding out for a cameo by Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight is that shoe-horning him in for the sake of a bit of fan service might be an easy way to confirm ticket sales, but it simply doesn’t fit where the character ended up in his movies.

If the suggestion for a cameo from Nolan’s movies was Michael Caine’s Alfred, Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon or even Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Robin Blake, there would be no issue, narratively speaking. The Dark Knight Rises ending suggests the mantle of Gotham’s protector was handed over to Blake. after all, and the other two supporting figures would be big-name drop-ins who wouldn’t cause any narrative contradictions. But Bale’s Bruce Wayne is not an active hero anymore and to have him appear at all would be to betray how his story concluded in The Dark Knight Rises, because not only is he retired, he’s assumed dead and is in hiding. The narrative gymnastics required to navigate that are just too distracting.

There is, of course, the suggestion that Bale would cameo only as Bruce Wayne, still retired, but all that would do is to hold up a sign telling DCEU fans that they got second prize: a stand-in Batman without the cape, the cowl or anything that defined him as a character. And though this would, presumably, be no more than a frivolous cameo, the idea of abandoning all of Bale’s history as Batman for the sake of cheap audience reactions does not sit with who Christopher Nolan is as a film-maker. His Dark Knight trilogy was designed, fundamentally, to be self-contained and satisfying: Bruce Wayne went from origin, through adversity to resolution in a typical three act play and hyper-extension beyond his happy ending would be profoundly insulting to what The Dark Knight Rises ending means.

The idea, on the other hand, of John Blake appearing as a call-out to Nolan’s Gotham still existing without Batman would be confirmation of that message: that heroism and justice can continue as long as there is someone willing to step into the right role. The Dark Knight Rises‘ most important message was that Batman didn’t have to be Bruce Wayne and for Bale to reappear as that version of the Dark Knight would specifically devalue that very message. So, no matter how incredible the idea of Bale turning up in the Multiverse of the DCEU’s The Flash, there’s just too much at stake for it to ever be a serious consideration.

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Simon Gallagher
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Simon is a veteran editor who has been writing online since 2010 – long before anyone wanted to read his work. He loves Clueless. Like, a lot.

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