Summary
- Batman: Gotham Knight enhances the Nolan Batman universe by adding new villains and deepening Batman's character development.
- The animated film bridges the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, maintaining Nolan's realism while expanding the lore.
- Gotham Knight offers insight into Batman's evolution from novice vigilante to seasoned hero, setting the stage for The Dark Knight.
Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale’s iteration of Batman is deservedly praised by critics and viewers alike, but The Dark Knight trilogy’s secret fourth installment – Batman: Gotham Knight – manages to improve his character and universe. The Dark Knight trilogy is renowned for its relatively realistic take on the Batman characters and mythos, taking a vastly different approach than the Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher Batman movies. Gotham Knights, which came out in 2008 as part of the lead-up to The Dark Knight, continues Batman’s story between the trilogy’s first two installments.
The Nolan Batman universe has relatively little content outside of the films themselves. The Batman Begins video game remains largely faithful to the film it adapts, as do the trilogy’s novelizations. The franchise does include spinoff comics and a series of live-action web shorts, but the most prominent non-movie property in the Nolan Batman franchise is Gotham Knight, an animated film comprised of vignettes that bridge the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and improve the characters and lore of the live-action Batman movies.