Batman: Year One (Darren Aronofsky) – WTF Happened to this Unmade Movie?

Matt Reeves’s gritty take on The Batman is currently cleaning up at the box office, with critics and audiences praising the director and star Robert Pattinson’s new approach to the Caped Crusader. It’s worth mentioning, though, that even before the franchise was ultra-successfully rebooted by Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, there were many other proposed Batman films pitched at Warner Bros in the wake of Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin. One that got close to happening was Darren Aronofsky’s Batman: Year One, based on the comic by Frank Miller. Had the movie happened, Joaquin Phoenix and Christian Bale were on Aronofsky’s list to play the role, and this movie came pretty close to happening. In this episode of WTF Happened to this Unmade Movie, we take a look at this project, as well as a lot of other Unmade Batman movies, including a direct sequel to Batman & Robin and even a reboot starring Clint Eastwood in the role as a grizzled, older Dark Knight.

This episode of WTF Happened to this Unmade Movie is written and edited by Paul Cooper. Bronwyn Kelly-Seigh is the narrated, Ben Cantler is the producer and Berge Garabedian is the executive producer. Check out previous episodes below!

About the Author

Chris Bumbray began his career with JoBlo as the resident film critic (and James Bond expert) way back in 2007, and he has stuck around ever since, being named editor-in-chief in 2021. A voting member of the CCA and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, you can also catch Chris discussing pop culture regularly on CTV News Channel.