Bringing Christian Bale back as the Batman in Man of Steel sequel.

Rumours are circulating that Christian Bale may make a return as Batman in the next Superman film. Here are my thoughts on this topic.

Firstly I'd like to say I am a huge fan of this idea, I don't want any more reboots, the Dark Knight trilogy was widely successful, the Green Lantern film whilst not as positively reviewed I believe captured the spirit of the source material.

Obviously bringing Bale back creates possible problems in the continuity, as Bruce Wayne retired and left the mantle of the bat to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character Robin/John Blake. Now the film, and many others in future Batman and Justice League outings, could just be set in the huge time gap between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, but I have a different suggestion.

The film has stated it draws inspiration from The Dark Knight Returns, which fits almost perfectly with the ending left in the Dark Knight Rises with a few small adjustments early in the new movie.

In order to bring Bruce Wayne back and to not beat around the bush for what is unavoidable, the film will need to recast the Joker. This may not be a popular decision but its a narrow viewed, closed minded idea to think DC will not try and use their most overrated villain. In my opinion anyway.

Drawing inspiration from The Batman Superman Movie (actually the three episodes from "The World's Finest" story arc of Season 2 of Superman: The Animated Series), the new film would be introducing Lex Luthor, capitalising on the obvious fear and panic created in the hearts and minds of  the people after the battles in the first Man of Steel film, billions of dollars of collateral damage. Whilst also using Luthor to bring back the Joker, breaking him out of prison.

The film could take points from the death in the family story arc. Using the new Joker to "kill" Robin in an explosion, bringing Bruce back out of retirement.

This could also lead to a future Batman sequel where we find Robin survived the explosion but has developed hatred towards Bruce for not saving him and become the Red Hood.

Bringing Mr. Wayne back this way leads into the Dark Knight Returns part of the story as he may be more violent and aggressive. Prompting the government to request Superman to take down this dangerous vigilante.