Warner Bros. will release Suicide Squad soon, and at least in terms of trailers and publicity it seems to have a chance to be the most successful project since Zack Snyder started to create a DC empire. Beginning with Man Of Steel and continuing through this year’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Snyder and others are attempting to take on Marvel. So far, though, they’re coming up short. And even if Suicide Squad turns some heads, it’s pretty clear at this point that DC and Warner Bros. are playing catch-up.
They might not be doing so if they’d successfully convinced Christopher Nolan to transition from his excellent Dark Knight trilogy to a larger DC Universe. Alas, they didn’t do so. But the interesting thing is that Nolan himself hasn’t ruled out returning to superhero cinema.
That’s pretty tantalizing stuff to droves of film fans who adore Nolan’s work. So, forgetting for a moment the director’s deep ties to Warner Bros., let’s open the idea up to superhero comics in general. Which heroes are well suited to Nolan’s style or would be most compelling in one of his movies? These are five that could get people excited.
Moon Knight
The Moon Knight, a character many think of already as Marvel’s closest thing to Batman, would have been considered a somewhat-obscure superhero just a year or two ago. Slowly but surely, Moon Knight has crept into the mainstream superhero conversation. He popped up pretty early on as a character in Marvel: Contest Of Champions, one of many Marvel-based mobile games that have taken app stores by storm. And there have even been multiple rumors of a coming film or TV series surrounding the character. Moon Knight has a mystical background (he’s basically imbued with power by an Egyptian god), but functionally he really is a great deal like Batman. Other than the fact that it could be too similar to the Dark Knight saga, Moon Knight seems to play to Nolan’s strengths, and one can imagine this being a sleek, ominous dramatic thriller.
Catwoman
Given that the 2004 Catwoman starring Halle Berry was universally panned, this character would need a full reboot. Then again, Nolan already did this to some extent within The Dark Knight Rises. That might have been perceived as the worst of his three Dark Knight films, but Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman was fairly well received. If Nolan simply wants to get back into superhero movies, providing a prequel or sequel for the Catwoman character he brought to life could be interesting.
Blade
Blade, too, would require a full reboot, but unlike Catwoman this character has stuck around in the public eye for over a decade since the last Wesley Snipes film. For years he’s been the centerpiece of a few online games featured among wide ranging selections of movie-based games at a leading casino site. This stands out in particular because most of the other slots’ thematic leads are more modern, and yet it’s not surprising. It speaks to the fact that Blade (and the Snipes series in particular) still has a following. There’s been talk in the last year or two of Snipes himself rebooting Blade, but whether or not he’s the one to do it, putting this film in Nolan’s hands would be fascinating. There’s a Batman element to it in that this is a darker superhero, but Blade crosses over into the vampire genre as well, which is something unlike anything Nolan’s done before.
Adam Warlock
This is a fascinating character who some have described as the most important Marvel hero not in the MCU. That’s because he’s basically a scientifically created demigod, and perhaps the only character who can realistically battle Thanos (the “Mad Titan” thought to be the ultimate MCU villain). This, too, would be a character unlike any Nolan has dealt with. He tends to ground even his most spectacular films in reality, whereas Warlock would pull him into the full-on fantasy of human scientists creating a sort of Superman for mankind. Then again, Nolan’s touch might be one of the few that could make this film serious, rather than silly.
Mystique
The X-Men movies have been pretty isolated from the rest of superhero cinema, and Bryan Singer and Co. have a pretty firmly established tone they’re working with. But there’s a potential Mystique story waiting to be told, because the character (played by Jennifer Lawrence) has repeatedly gone off on her own adventures only to return when the rest of the X-Men need her. To find out what happens on those adventures, a different tone may be appropriate, and Nolan would make it memorable. He’s dealt in many cases with various forms of persecution in his films (citizens turning on Batman, scientists doubting his lead in Interstellar, etc.), and would do well with the fact that Mystique constantly feels shorted by society.
It’s not Marvel or DC but Spawn could do with a decent return to the big screen. May be too dark and crazy for Nolan but could also be a different prospect for him to get his teeth into.