Toronto: Christian Bale says "The Dark Knight" series, based on DC superhero Batman, was wrapped up in three films as director Christopher Nolan had conceptualised the franchise as a trilogy.
The actor played the Caped Crusader in three critically-lauded and commercially successful Batman films -- "Batman Begins" (2005), "The Dark Knight" (2008) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012).
Bale said the filmmaker would often tell him that after the third film is made, they would stop at it.
"We knew we had to reinvent it. I literally had people laugh at me when I told them we were doing a new kind of Batman. I think that the reason I worked was first and foremost Chris' take on it. But also we never were arrogant to assume that we had an opportunity beyond one film at a time. That's something that Chris always would talk about. He'd say, 'This is it. We're making one film. That's all we've got.'
"Then when they came and said, 'You want to go make another?' It was fantastic, but we still said, 'This is it. We will never get another opportunity.' Then they came and they said, 'OK, let's do a third one.' Chris had always said to me that if we were fortunate to be able to make three we would stop," Bale, 45, told the Toronto Sun newspaper.
The actor revealed they were approached to make a fourth film in the franchise but he stuck with Nolan's vision.
"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 a fourth.
"That's why we, well Chris, stepped away. After that I was informed my services were no longer required," Bale said.
