Christopher Nolan was indecisive about directing sequel to Batman Begins, says brother Jonathan

Christopher Nolan's brother, Jonathan, appeared on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast on April 4, 2024, and spoke about how Christopher was indecisive about directing The Dark Knight. Jonathan told Shepard that Chris needed some convincing to make the film as he was hesitant to make another "comic book movie."

Jonathan said that he had worked with his brother on Batman Begins at a "slight arm's length capacity."

“I worked on ‘Batman Begins’ in this slight arm’s length capacity, but it was the one comic book my brother had ever given me as a kid, ‘Batman: Year One,’ for my 14th birthday, and 10 years later I was on the set working with him. This is nuts. Chris was on the fence about making another one. He didn’t want to become a superhero movie director,” Jonathan said.

Christopher Nolan's brother added that the former was "very proud" of Batman Begins.

“He was very proud of Batman Begins. To me, it's like... we built this amazing sports car and I'm like, 'let's take it for a drive. Don't you wanna make one more?' Like, we did all this stuff,"

Directed by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight was based on the comic book by DC Comics. The screenplay was written by Jonathan Nolan and the cast included Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

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Jonathan talks about Christopher Nolan’s hesitation while doing The Dark Knight

Directed and produced by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight quickly gained a lot of appreciation when it was released globally in 2008. While the Nolan brothers were praised for their work in the movie, Jonathan talked about his experience of working with his brother.

During the Armchair Expert podcast, he stated that Christopher Nolan moved on to another project. He added that Chris needed some convincing to go back to create more Batman films. Jonathan told Dax that his brother didn't want to be pigeonholed as he "didn't want to become a superhero movie director.

“We spent an hour telling the origin story, and that’s great, but it’s like, what more can we do with this? I said to him, Can we take the same characters and shift ever so slightly into a different genre? Can we go from an adventure film to a crime film, to a mob movie, and bring that feeling into it?”Jonathan recalled.

Jonathan also stated what happened when Christopher was developing the story, with a few inputs from him. Talking about how he managed to “avoid being pigeonholed,” he said that Christopher developed the film's story with David Goyer and "a little bit of input" from Jonathan.

“Iit was like first act detailed, second act somewhat detailed, third act … uh, he rides away at the end—once we had the script done, I was like, ‘This is going to be great. This is exciting. We gotta make this movie.’ And eventually, he came around. He did manage to avoid being pigeonholed,” the producer said.

Released in 2008, The Dark Knight was a sequel to Batman Begins, which was released in 2005. He also created a sequel to The Dark Knight called The Dark Knight Rises in 2012.

While the 2008 movie became a massive success, Heath Ledger's character, Joker, was applauded by the masses. He won many awards including the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and even the Academy Award for the role. Christopher Nolan also received awards for the best director and storyline for the movie.

The director and story writer is also known for his other hits like Inception, Interstellar, Tenet, and the recent blockbuster Oppenheimer. He has also been nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning two of them, and six Golden Globe awards, winning one.