With the premiere of The Batman fast approaching, the hype for the film has only been growing. Fans of the Caped Crusader have been discussing everything from the casting of Robert Pattinson as Batman to what the inspiration was for the film’s visual style and tone. Now, thanks to an interview with Esquire, the film’s director, and co-writer Matt Reeves has shed some light on his inspiration for the film, specifically when it comes to his version of Bruce Wayne/Batman.

In the interview, Reeves confirms what many comic book fans had already speculated, that the film was inspired in many ways by Batman: Year One, a four-issue run by prolific comic book writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli from 1987. Reeves discusses how there was one particular frame in Batman: Year One where Batman is first out fighting crime and “he’s dressed in what I thought looked like an image out of Taxi Driver”. A look that as it turns out was intentional as confirmed by the commemorative edition of Year One, which features a note from Miller to Mazzucchelli saying he wanted Batman “to basically look like he’s won a Taxi Driver-lookalike competition”. When the interviewer pointed this connection out to Reeves, it made him laugh.

However, Batman: Year One was not Reeves’ only inspiration for his new take on the classic character. In the interview, Reeves also quickly mentions some other inspirations for his take on Batman was 1970s Hollywood classics like The French Connection, Chinatown, and Taxi Driver. Funnily enough, Taxi Driver was also named as a major influence for 2019’s Joker, a film centered on Batman’s most iconic villain. While The Batman’s connections to the films above have as been discussed by fans since the first set photos were leaked, there is another inspiration for the film that might surprise people.

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In the interview, Reeves says that he was inspired by the band Nirvana. As Reeves explains:

“Early on, when I was writing, I started listening to Nirvana, and there was something about [Nevermind song] ‘Something in the Way’, which is in the first trailer, which is part of the voice of that character. When I considered, ‘How do you do Bruce Wayne in a way that hasn’t been seen before?’ I started thinking, ‘What if some tragedy happened [ie: Wayne sees his parents murdered] and this guy becomes so reclusive, we don’t know what he’s doing? Is this guy some kind of wayward, reckless, drug addict?’ And the truth is that he is a kind of drug addict. His drug is his addiction to this drive for revenge. He’s like a Batman Kurt Cobain.”

The Batman hits theaters on March 4, 2022, and stars Pattinson as Batman, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as The Riddler, Colin Farrell as The Penguin, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, and Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon. The film is directed by Reeves and co-written by Reeves with Peter Craig (The Town).