"It was always going to be Christian Bale": When Cillian Murphy broke silence on not getting the Batman role for Nolan's trilogy

Batman Begins, the first movie in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy will turn 20 this June. But one of the surprising facts about the movie is that Cillian Murphy, the actor who played Scarecrow in the film, was in the running to play the titular character. For his audition, Murphy even wore the Val Kilmer Bat Suit. In 2023, Murphy spoke about losing the role to Christian Bale.

Cillian Murphy sat down for an interview with GQ Magazine UK to promote his then-upcoming movie, Oppenheimer, for which the actor reunited with his Dunkirk and The Dark Knight Trilogy filmmaker Christopher Nolan. In the interview, Murphy reflected upon his experience of working on Nolan's genre-defining Batman trilogy. The actor had this to say about losing the main role to Christian Bale:

“I never considered myself as the right physical specimen for Batman. To me, it was always going to be Christian Bale.”

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Cillian Murphy's role in the Batman franchise explained:

The first movie in Nolan's trilogy was a breath of fresh air in the Batman franchise after Batman & Robin (1997) disappointed fans everywhere. The latter was responsible for the character's exile from the big screen for almost a decade. However, that changed with the first movie in The Dark Knight Trilogy.

Released in 2005, Batman Begins was praised for its more serious and darker take on the character. Unlike the previous movies featuring the character, which revolved more around the villains and the Caped Crusader, Batman Begins focused more on Bruce Wayne. However, that does not mean that the villains in the movie were weak.

One of the villains that was a part of the trilogy was Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow played by Cillian Murphy. Crane appeared in all three movies across The Dark Knight Trilogy, but he played a prominent role in Batman Begins. That's because his character played a key role in highlighting the central theme of the movie, fear. However, despite Murphy's strong performance, the character had its shortcomings.

While Scarecrow is a strong villain in the first half of the first movie, he loses his intimidating qualities right after Batman douses Scarecrow with the latter's own fear toxin. After that, Scarecrow appears as a side character who has no role to play in the plot of the next two movies he appears in.

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Cillian Murphy almost played the Caped Crusader:

In a YouTube video, titled Behind The Scenes of The Dark Knight Trilogy, we see Cillian Murphy's audition to play the Caped Crusader at the 39:25 minute mark. During the July 2023, GQ Magazine UK interview, Murphy candidly revealed that he knew he was not suitable to play The Dark Knight. Appreciating Christian Bale's performance, Murphy said:

“Yes, I think it was for the best because we got Christian Bale’s performance, which is a stunning interpretation of that role.”

A similar sentiment was also expressed by Christopher Nolan in an Entertainment Weekly interview from May 2023 in which Murphy was also present. His exact quote addressing Murphy was:

“When we had our first conversation I think both of us knew that you weren’t going to wind up playing Batman. But I really wanted to get on set with you, I wanted to get you on film. We did those screen tests very elaborately, on 35mm, with a little set. There was just an electric atmosphere in the crew when you started to perform.”

The director revealed that while he never intended to cast Murphy in the titular role, he still wanted the actor to participate in the movie. For that, here's what he did:

“We did two scenes — there was a Bruce Wayne scene and a Batman scene — and I made sure that executives came down and watched what you were doing on set. Everybody was so excited by watching you perform that when I then said to them, ‘Okay, Christian Bale is Batman, but what about Cillian to play Scarecrow?’ There was no dissent. All the previous Batman villains had been played by huge movie stars: Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carrey, that kind of thing. That was a big leap for them and it really was purely on the basis of that test. So that’s how you got to play Scarecrow.”

Cillian Murphy was appreciated for his role as Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow.

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The Dark Knight Trilogy not only changed public perception of The Caped Crusader but also people's overall impression of superhero movies. Nolan's contribution to superhero movies is undoubtedly significant. After him, Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon's work with the character proved to be divisive while Matt Reeves was appreciated for bringing out Batman's detective side to film for the first time on screen.

Andy Muschietti has some big shoes to fill because his work will be compared to that of Nolan's.