The Dark Knight was the last superhero movie saga with an actual ending
polygon.comAt the end of 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, writer-director Christopher Nolan leaves Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) far from his traditional crime-fighting quest. He’s seemingly freed himself of the physical and psychological burden of being Batman. Now he can relax, shoot knowing glances at Alfred (Michael Caine) from across a café, and get tipsy around Europe with the Woman Formerly Known As Catwoman (Anne Hathaway). Meanwhile, back in Gotham City, former cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) discovers the Batcave beneath the rebuilt Wayne Manor. Blake has spent the entire film being promoted as the closest thing to Batman’s heir apparent, from his revelation that he deduced Bruce Wayne’s secret identity to the end reveal that his legal name is “Robin.” As the credits hit and Hans Zimmer’s score blares, he ascends to take on the mantle.
And then the series is over. Not paused until the next sequel or spinoff, not nominally wrapped until a credits scene setting up a new branch of a franchise, but over. After perhaps the biggest ending tease in modern superhero films that doesn’t involve Captain America’s shield, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight story concludes, with no intentions for a revival or a continuation. In the age of expanded universes and multiplying timelines, that isn’t just rare, it’s purely singular. The Dark Knight Rises came out a full decade ago, and it marks the last time a major superhero story was allowed to definitively wrap up.
Batman films always tend to feel like they’re from a different dimension, even though they have deeply influences on the genre around them. The fairy-tale fever dream of Tim Burton’s Batman Returns in 1992 and the toyetic glowstick wonderland of Joel Schumacher’s Batman &
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