Christopher Nolan has confirmed that The Dark Knight Rises will be “the last chapter of our Batman saga,” a clear indication that the helmer and his star Christian Bale are putting down the cowl for good.  Interestingly Nolan appears to be very enthusiastic about his return to Gotham, telling Entertainment Weekly, “I feel very glad that I’m doing another Batman film. I think it would have been daunting to sit down and write an original script after Inception. I love working within the realm and rules of our Batman world. It’s kind of nice to have someplace to go that I’m super-excited about it.”

So the Nolan/Bale Batman franchise will be a trilogy, and likely the most popular one in comic book movie history, but what about the future of the Gotham City vigilante?  Will DC reboot the series with a young Bruce Wayne, or perhaps revive the Superman/Batman or JLA multi-hero concepts?

Speaking of the Man of Steel, Nolan, who has been doing a lot of press in conjunction with the upcoming release of Inception on DVD, also told HitFix that, having worked with David Goyer to come up with a basic storyline for the new Superman film, Nolan was now consumed with The Dark Knight Rises, and is “handing it (the Superman project) off to him (director Zack Snyder).