Looking at all the Batman movies that have been made so far, people might have noticed that a lot of the villains are repeated in the cinematic universe. From Christopher Nolan’s hot-take on The Joker to Matt Reeves with The Riddler, these villains are very well-known characters around the world.
Well, our team found something called the Bat-embargo which is essentially the reason for the lack of villains in the DCAU. The entire embargo is based on Christopher Nolan’s films and it seems that the Bat embargo is the reason why the DCAU has some obscure villains and the live-action has some fewer choices!
Christopher Nolan Was The Reason For Bat-embargo!
It is no secret that the adaptations of the DC Comics are more chaotic than Marvel Comics. With several versions of the same character playing in three different projects, the DCAU and the DCU are comparatively a lot more confusing. Not to mention the countless reboots and different versions of the same film (*cough* Zack Snyder *cough*).
It was back in 2005 when Christopher Nolan released Batman Begins with Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, and Cillian Murphy in the lead roles. In the film, the villainous forms of Ras Al Ghul and The Scarecrow and the film was quite a success.
Later on, Nolan directed Heath Ledger and Harvey Dent aka Two-Face in the iconic 2008 film The Dark Knight which was obviously a phenomenal film. In 2012, Nolan ended his trilogy with Tom Hardy’s Bane as the villain of The Dark Knight Rises and that was it for Nolan’s list of Batman villains.
As it so happens, characters like Bane, The Joker, The Scarecrow, and Ras Al Ghul were not frequently seen in the animated series or any other projects. And this is how the world was introduced to the term… Bat-embargo!
The Bat-embargo Restricted Batman Characters In Other Projects!
Although the embargo was indeed a real rule, it seems that the restrictions have been lifted in recent times. As per DCAU Wiki, the Bat-embargo was a term used to describe the limitation and restriction of the appearance of certain characters from Christopher Nolan’s trilogy in other forms of media!
This included the DCAU and any other type of media that was using characters from Nolan’s Trilogy. As per the website, the rule was brought in so that kids (the target audience) wouldn’t get confused by watching the same character in three versions at the same time! The website does mention that the embargo has been allegedly lifted now and the usage of formerly banned characters in Batman: The Brave and the Bold is proof of the alleged lifting of the embargo.