Emma Thomas says Christopher Nolan will never make another Batman film

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In an interview with our siblings at SFX , Emma Thomas has stated that Christopher Nolan will never return to Batman after The Dark Knight Rises .

When SFX put the question to Thomas, who is Nolan's wife and producing partner, as to whether Nolan could be tempted to make a fourth Bat-flick, she responded, "No. Never."

When pressed on whether that meant never, or never say never again, Thomas said, categorically, "No, that's truly a never. I can't imagine a world in which he would ever want to come back.

"At a certain point it’s fun to go off and do something different, you know. We’ve spent almost 10 years of our lives making Batman films. He was very excited about this film, and the story that he’d come up with, but I just cannot imagine that he would get that excited about another version of the same thing.

"The great thing about a trilogy is that it feels like you’ve got a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s like an extended version of a regular film. Once you get into a fourth film then it’s just episodic, and I just can’t see him getting excited about making another film where basically you’re just wheeling in different villains.”

On the one hand, it's hard not to admire a filmmaker sticking to their guns, and refusing to bow to audience or studio pressure. On the other hand, it's a little depressing to know that The Dark Knight Rises will be our last visit to the Nolan bat-verse.

Oh well, we'll have to make sure we enjoy it then.

For more from Thomas on TDKR , be sure to pick up SFX #224, which hits newsstands next Wednesday.

The Dark Knight Rises opens on 20 July 2012.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at 12DOVE, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.