Christian Bale has revealed that Christopher Nolan liked the challenge of making a Batman sequel.
Bale will play the caped crusader for the final time later this summer in The Dark Knight Rises, a movie that will also end Nolan's involvement with the franchise.
And while Bale admits that a trilogy is always a risk that is how the movies were planned and Nolan was ready to take it on.
Speaking to Collider the actor said: "My understanding was, Chris could have chosen not to do it, but he had always talked about this as being a trilogy and he liked the challenge that an awful lot of movies fail on the third one.
"There are some exceptions but most of the time that's the tricky one to pull off. And I think he really likes the challenge of that."
The Dark Knight Rises is one of the most anticipated movies of 2012 as Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman are also set to return.
Tom Hardy is set to be an explosive addition to the cast as Bane while Anne Hathaway bring the character of Catwoman back to the big screen.
The Dark Knight grossed over $1 billion four years ago and is widely regarded to be one of the best comic book movies of all time.
The Dark Knight Rises is released 20th July.