Did you know ‘Batman’ Christian Bale was approached to play ‘Superman’?

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Christian Bale won over billions of hearts with his portrayal of Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. But way before he became the choice for Batman, the actor was actually offered to play Superman. And had things turned out differently back in the days, he would have been going against Batman, the character that he is now most famous for. The Batman versus Superman movie must have been a lot more different had Christian Bale played the character of Superman instead of Brue Wayne. 

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Many may know that the concept of Batman battling Superman was a concept that first revolved around the early 2000s. Warner Bros had also tapped Seven screenwriter Andrew Walker to develop the script. At the same time, Troy director Wolfgang Petersen was chosen to direct the potential blockbuster.

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Andrew Walker, who developed the script of Batman vs Superman said that he had a lot of pressure on him when he was working on the script. “I was lucky enough to write Batman vs. Superman, but it led to a lot of insomnia. When I got those two characters to go off and fight, I was incredibly weighed by a sense of nervous purpose. It felt like a great responsibility to write these two incredibly iconic characters and the characters that surrounded them,” Walker said.

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However, beating all the difficulties, Andrew Walker was able to perform the task by drawing inspiration from some familiar stories.

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With Wolfgang Peterson set to direct the film, the makers had to decide upon its cast. And that is when they thought of casting Christian Bale as Superman. In an old interview with MTV News, Wolfgang Peterson had revealed that he met Christian Bale for the role and had also approached Josh Hartnett. The film was close to being made.

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“And then the studio got a single Superman script I think from JJ Abrams at that time, and [Warner Bros. chief] Alan Horn was so torn – because it’s such a fascinating concept to do a Batman versus Superman film. And I still think it would be to do that. But the studio decided to try [a] separate version of Superman and Batman, and then maybe think about down the road if you want to bring them together in one film,” Andrew Petersen said. Eventually, Christopher Nolan chose to cast Christian Bale as Batman for his highly successful Batman trilogy.