Filmmaker James Wan has taken a somewhat unlikely path to helming a blockbuster superhero movie. Nowadays, it’s almost more common for a director to helm a small-budget Sundance movie and then immediately make the leap to the blockbuster realm, but Wan’s been honing his craft as a director since the early 2000s, when he broke out big with his small-budget horror film Saw. It wasn’t until 2013’s hugely successful The Conjuring that Wan then began moving into other genres of filmmaking, being tapped to helm the also hugely successful Furious 7, which then of course led to the upcoming DC movie Aquaman.

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Image via Warner Bros.

But Wan has also been interested in a very different take on a very different DC character: Batman. Appearing on Josh Horowitz’s HappySadConfused podcast, Wan revealed that his “scary” pitch for a Batman movie was real for an extremely brief period of time:

“It was kind of real for like two seconds. It wasn’t something I was necessarily going to ultimately pursue. I didn’t pursue just because I felt like, you know, there’s been a lot of Batman stories. Which is great, I’m a big fan of the Batman world and the Batman character and I think there are great filmmakers that are going to come in and do great things with this character. I just ultimately decided that it probably wasn’t for me.”

Wan admits he didn’t really get too deep into the pitch, but does say his take would’ve delved into the horror aspects of the character:

“I think [horror] would be the angle that I would have taken it. You know, do a scary version of Batman. Whatever that means. (laughs).”

It’s unclear when this pitch materialized, if it was when Wan was working with Warner Bros. while making The Conjuring—which would have been around the time Man of Steel came out, and thus pre-dating the DCEU and Batman v Superman—or if it was while Wan was working on Aquaman. Regardless, Matt Reeves has the job of making a new Batman movie now, but in Hollywood it’s best to never say never. Who knows, maybe we’ll get to see James Wan’s “scary Batman movie” someday.

Listen to the full podcast interview below:

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Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via Warner Bros.