Christopher Nolan shows no interest in returning the superhero genre

The state of the superhero genre has no doubt changed since Christopher Nolan‘s time with the Batman character. While Batman Begins was a hit with critics and audiences, it was The Dark Knight that really became the solidifying force of Nolan’s brand to the masses and has since given him carte blanche in the film world. After his contributions to the dominant pop culture genre, and the great success he had in reaction to it, many are curious about whether the filmmaker would be interested in revisiting that world or not.

Now that Oppenheimer will be hitting theaters, Nolan will henceforth be doing promotion seemingly on his own since the stars will not be permitted to do so with the SAG-AFTRA strike in effect. CBR.com reports on an interview the Inception director gave with HugoDécrypte on YouTube. In a quick segment in the interview where the host asks rapid-fire questions with only “yes” or “no” responses, the inevitable question came up as the interviewer inquired if Nolan would ever want to direct another superhero movie after concluding with Batman. His answer was, “No.” Since the segment continued, he wouldn’t further expound on his answer.

Nolan has said that he approached each of the Dark Knight movies as their own film and not as part of a franchise. Batman was the ideal high-profile character for Nolan, as the filmmaker wanted to explore the Caped Crusader in a more realistic setting in which every part of the lore was grounded. Ironically, the same year The Dark Knight was released, earlier that summer, the seed for the Marvel Cinematic Universe was planted with the first Iron Man also being released to huge numbers, and the rest is history.

In further sync, Nolan’s finale in the comic book franchise, The Dark Knight Rises, opened the same summer as Marvel’s The Avengers, which started the craze for shared universes when it opened Hollywood’s eyes to possibilities of mega franchises with ongoing sequels and crossover potentials. DC would immediately follow up The Dark Knight Rises with the start of the DCEU the following summer with Man of Steel, which would even carry Nolan over as a producer.