Christopher Nolan has publicly stated that The Dark Knight Rises will be his final Batman film, and Warner Bros. is already looking ahead to the future of the franchise.  As we reported last night, the studio is currently planning a Justice League movie for 2013 and Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov tells Hero Complex that scripts are being written for Flash and Wonder Woman (the Wonder Woman project would exist separately from the upcoming NBC show).  But most intriguing is what the studio plans to do with its marquee superhero, Batman:

"We have the third Batman, but then we’ll have to reinvent Batman..." says Robinov.  "Chris Nolan and [producing partner and wife] Emma Thomas will be producing it, so it will be a conversation with them about what the next phase is."

Hit the jump for my thoughts on the future of the Batman franchise.

Since Nolan said TDKR would be his last Batman film, I already assumed that Warner Bros. would reboot the franchise.  However, I hope that they don't devote yet another film to Batman's origin story.  We all know how Bruce Wayne became Batman.

I'm a little worried about keeping Nolan and Thomas on as producers.  I'm hoping that they'll be on board simply to give the reboot some cred and leave the creative decisions to a new director and his or her team.  Nolan has recast the Batman world in a "realistic" setting and that's a perfectly valid take that's had both positive and negative repercussions.  But I think a trilogy of Batman films done in that style is enough and it's time to see what a new director can bring to the table.

Another question worth asking is if Warner Bros. plans to tie Justice League to their new Batman.  Will the actor who plays Batman in JL also play Batman in the new franchise?  Or will Justice League exist in its own universe?