Christopher Nolan has always said that The Dark Knight Rises would be the last film in his Batman trilogy, but that doesn’t mean that Warner Bros. wants to stop producing adventures for the caped crusader. The franchise is a surefire box office hit and it wouldn’t make sense for the studio to just drop it after The Dark Knight Rises. They already lost Harry Potter and I’m sure that they’re not eager to lose another huge franchise.

Today, the studio announced that they plan on giving Batman a reboot once Christopher Nolan steps away from the franchise. Being a reboot, none of the original cast will be returning which means that the studio needs to find a new actor to play the caped crusader. Following in the footsteps of Christian Bale is a daunting task for just about anyone but Warner Bros. seems to think that Ryan Reynolds is the man for the job.

Yes, you read that right. Once Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale depart from the Batman universe, Warner Bros. will reboot it with Ryan Reynolds in the lead role. The studio recently worked with him on Green Lantern and though the film flopped, it wasn’t Reynolds’ fault. He showed us that he could craft an effective superhero and Warner Bros. obviously enjoyed his performance. Much of the film’s faults stemmed from the writing and directing, not from Reynolds’ performance.

“We’ve begged Chris [Nolan] to stay on board but he refuses. He feels that he can’t do anything more with the series after this third film. We don’t want to let Batman die though, we know there are tons of fans out there that will want more and that’s why we’re looking into a reboot,” says Barry Meyer, CEO of Warner Bros. “We loved the work that Ryan did for us on Green Lantern and we feel that he’s the right man to lead the Batman franchise. He’s an extremely talented individual and we hope that fans will embrace him as the new Batman,” continued Meyer.

As for directors, nothing has been announced as of yet but apparently, the studio wants Duncan Jones. Jones, the director of Source Code, was rumored for both The Wolverine and Man Of Steel at one point so it’s clear that studios feel that he can handle big franchises. This is by no means confirmed though but it is what our source close to the studio has told us.

“Duncan impressed a lot of people with his work on Source Code and Moon, he’s very in demand right now and Warner Bros. is hoping to have him take over the Batman franchise,” says a source close to the studio.

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