Christian Bale has revealed that Warner Bros. originally pitched a fourth Batman film to succeed Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises , though he ultimately decided to hang up his cape.

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In a recent interview with the Toronto Sun , Bale reflected on his time as Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy, as he explained the reason why he turned down the studio's offer of a fourth film, saying he refused the part out of respect for Nolan."We were never arrogant to assume that we had an opportunity beyond one film at a time," Bale told the outlet. "That's something that Chris always would talk about. He'd say, 'This is it. We're making one film. That's all we've got. Then when they came and said, 'You want to go make another?' It was fantastic, but we still said, 'This is it. We will not get another opportunity.'"In the end, Bale teamed up with Nolan on Batman Begins in 2005, The Dark Knight in 2008, and The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, at which point the two of them decided to cap it, as it had always been Nolan's intention to tell this story across three acts, provided he was granted the opportunity to do so."Chris had always said to me that if we were fortunate to be able to make three we would stop. 'Let's walk away after that,'" Bale said of Nolan's vision for his DC trio."Then when they inevitably came to us and said, 'How about a No. 4?' I said, 'No. We have to stick to Chris' dream, which was always to, hopefully, do a trilogy. Let's not stretch too far and become overindulgent and go for a fourth. That's why we, well Chris, stepped away."After that, I was informed my services were no longer required," Bale added with a laugh. Ben Affleck took the mantle of The Dark Knight of Gotham City from Bale for Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016 and Justice League in 2017. It was believed that Affleck would direct and star in the upcoming Batman solo film , but the project has since seen a major shift.Directed by Matt Reeves, The Batman will instead star Robert Pattinson as the titular crime-fighter alongside Jeffrey Wright as Gotham Police Commissioner Gordon Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman , and Andy Serkis as Bruce Wayne's trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth For more on The Batman , read about Robert Pattinson's forthcoming take on the iconic comic book character , check out his training and preparation for the "gritty, realistic" fighting scenes , and find out which star inspired his Batman voice . Or, for a broader round-up, take a look at everything we know so far about the film

Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter