Director Tim Burton says he has no interest in returning to a superhero movie, despite being considered by many to be a pioneer of the genre.
The 65-year-old celebrity is best known for his gothic and horror films, but he’s also known as the creative force behind “Batman” (1989), considered the first in a long line of superhero movies that served as a springboard for Marvel and DC.
“I was lucky because the word ‘franchise’ didn’t exist back then,” Burton told Variety about making the film. “So ‘Batman’ felt a little bit experimental at the time. … It was [of a superhero movie] That may be so.”
He went on to explain that because he was far away from the studios, he didn’t feel “pressure” from them.
“So we didn’t hear any of that feedback from the studio, and being in England it was even more remote. We really had to focus on the movie and not really think about the sort of things they’re thinking about before filming like we do now,” Burton explained.
The filmmaker also spoke about the idea of making a sequel.
“I wasn’t really interested in doing a sequel, but I loved Penguin and Catwoman, so I got re-energized by this,” he said, “and then I started hearing the word franchise, and studios started saying, ‘What’s that black thing coming out of Penguin’s mouth?’ That was the first time the cold winds of that stuff blew in for me.”
When asked if he’d star in a superhero movie in the future, the Oscar nominee said he probably wouldn’t: “I would say no. Like I said, I look at things from different perspectives, so I never say never to anything, but at this point, I’m not interested.”
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In a recent interview with GQ, “Batman” star Michael Keaton credited Burton with creating the superhero movie genre as we know it today, despite backlash from comic book fans at the time.
“Tim deserves a lot of credit. He changed everything,” Keaton said. “I wouldn’t say necessarily, but it’s likely that there wouldn’t be a Marvel Universe or a DC Universe without Tim Burton. He was doubted, he was questioned.”