Why Christopher Nolan Changed Bruce Wayne’s Origin Story In Batman Begins

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Nolan’s whole approach to “The Dark Knight” trilogy was to depict a Batman who could exist in reality, more or less. That’s why, as he told the LA Times, they saved a theatrical villain like the Joker for movie #2.

“[The Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’] is able to be quite theatrical because we set up Batman as an example of intense theatricality in Gotham. It starts to grow outward from Batman. But the premise we began with is that Batman was creating a wholly original thing,” said Nolan.

In keeping his Batman a “wholly original” phenomenon, Nolan also wanted to remove the idea that Bruce Wayne had been inspired by someone else, even a fictional character. “We wanted nothing that would undermine the idea that Bruce came up with this crazy plan of putting on a mask all by himself. That allowed us to treat it on our own terms,” he explained.

Bruce Wayne being a childhood fan of Zorro, and that inspiring how he becomes Batman, is an innately meta concept. Zorro, the character, inspired the creation of Batman by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, alongside other pulp heroes like the Shadow, the Spider, etc. Zorro is Don Diego de la Vega, a Spanish nobleman in 19th century California. While unmasked he’s one of the elite, but he also spends his days as a masked and caped vigilante dressed all in black who protects people in need. Diego de la Vega is the original Bruce Wayne, even if he had a trusty horse Tornado instead of a Batmobile, and a sword instead of any Batarangs.

In 2008, the same year “The Dark Knight” hit theaters, the aforementioned Grant Morrison and artist Tony Daniel added a new wrinkle to Batman and Zorro. 1958’s “Batman” #113 (by France Herron and Dick Sprang) featured Batman visiting an alien world, Zur-En-Arrh, and meeting the Batman of that planet who had a purple, red and yellow costume. The story implied the adventure was all a dream, but 50 years later, Morrison revived this forgotten story for the arc “Batman R.I.P.”

Morrison rewrote the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh into an alternate personality of Bruce Wayne’s, one that is whole committed to and more brutal about being Batman. Despite the bright costume, the Batman of Z.E.A. is a darker character than the original. So, why “Zur-En-Arrh”? It’s a mangling of something Thomas Wayne said right before his death. Coming out of the theater, eight-year-old Bruce Wayne was so taken by Zorro he asked if the hero could exist in reality. His father responded, “They’d probably throw somebody like Zorro in Arkham.”