WB did actually approach Bale about continuing but Bale relented out of respect for Nolan’s wishes.
“When they came [to us after ‘Batman Begins’] and said, ‘You want to go make another?’ It was fantastic, but we still said, ‘This is it. We will not get another opportunity,'” Bale said. “Then they came and they said, ‘OK, let’s do the third one.’ Chris had always said to me that if we were fortunate to be able to make three we would stop. ‘Let’s walk away after that,’ he said. Then when they inevitably came to us and said, ‘How about a No. 4?’ I said, ‘No. We have to stick to Chris’ dream, which was always to, hopefully, do a trilogy. Let’s not stretch too far and become overindulgent and go for a fourth.'”
- Christian Bale.
Granted, Bale here is saying they asked him about returning to the role for a potential fourth installment instead of returning for the role long-term for a shared universe, but one can easily imagine his answer would be the exact same if they asked him to return in the role in a similar MCU Iron Man fashion. Nolan views his version of Batman as a stand-alone take with a definitive beginning, middle, and end, told in three movies so Bale wants to honor those wishes. Unless Nolan somehow gives the stamp of approval(which is very unlikely), I don’t see Bale willingly returning to the role under any circumstances; no matter how much money WB offered him. So even the option to continue with Bale in the role after TDKR — be it a fourth film, or for a cinematic universe wasn’t available for WB like you’re making it out to be. Leaving rebooting the character with a new actor as the only possible option for them.
