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Los Angeles - Christopher Nolan is adamant Batman is finished for good.
The Dark Knight Rises director insists he has laid the superhero franchise to rest and fans won't be seeing another outing for mask-wearing hero Bruce Wayne, even though the open-ended final scene might suggest otherwise.
He told Film Comment: "For me, The Dark Knight Rises is specifically and definitely the end of the Batman story as I wanted to tell it. The open-ended nature of the film is simply a very important thematic idea that we wanted to get into the movie, which is that Batman is a symbol. He can be anybody, and that was very important to us.
"Not every Batman fan will necessarily agree with that interpretation of the philosophy of the character, but for me it all comes back to the scene between Bruce Wayne and Alfred in the private jet in Batman Begins, where the only way that I could find to make a credible characterisation of a guy transforming himself into Batman is if it was as a necessary symbol, and he saw himself as a catalyst for change."
The films - which star Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman - may have reached a conclusion, but the filmmaker is confident the symbol of Batman and the positive change he stands for still lives on through his ambiguous ending.
Christopher explained: "It was a temporary process, maybe a five-year plan that would be enforced for symbolically encouraging the good of Gotham to take back their city.
"To me, for that mission to succeed, it has to end, so this is the ending for me, and as I say, the open-ended elements are all to do with the thematic idea that Batman was not important as a man, he's more than that. He's a symbol, and the symbol lives on."
The Dark Knight Rises director insists he has laid the superhero franchise to rest and fans won't be seeing another outing for mask-wearing hero Bruce Wayne, even though the open-ended final scene might suggest otherwise.
He told Film Comment: "For me, The Dark Knight Rises is specifically and definitely the end of the Batman story as I wanted to tell it. The open-ended nature of the film is simply a very important thematic idea that we wanted to get into the movie, which is that Batman is a symbol. He can be anybody, and that was very important to us.
"Not every Batman fan will necessarily agree with that interpretation of the philosophy of the character, but for me it all comes back to the scene between Bruce Wayne and Alfred in the private jet in Batman Begins, where the only way that I could find to make a credible characterisation of a guy transforming himself into Batman is if it was as a necessary symbol, and he saw himself as a catalyst for change."
The films - which star Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman - may have reached a conclusion, but the filmmaker is confident the symbol of Batman and the positive change he stands for still lives on through his ambiguous ending.
Christopher explained: "It was a temporary process, maybe a five-year plan that would be enforced for symbolically encouraging the good of Gotham to take back their city.
"To me, for that mission to succeed, it has to end, so this is the ending for me, and as I say, the open-ended elements are all to do with the thematic idea that Batman was not important as a man, he's more than that. He's a symbol, and the symbol lives on."
