Nolan always envisioned Batman films as trilogy: Christian Bale

Christian Bale says "The Dark Knight" series, based on DC superhero Batman, was wrapped up in three films as director Christopher Nolan had conceptualised the franchise as a trilogy.

The actor played the Caped Crusader in three critically-lauded and commercially successful Batman films -- "Batman Begins" (2005), "The Dark Knight" (2008) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012).

Bale said the filmmaker would often tell him that after the third film is made, they would stop at it.

"We knew we had to reinvent it. I literally had people laugh at me when I told them we were doing a new kind of Batman. I think that the reason I worked was first and foremost Chris' take on it. But also we never were arrogant to assume that we had an opportunity beyond one film at a time. That's something that Chris always would talk about. He'd say, 'This is it. We're making one film. That's all we've got.'