Bale: "I’m not certain if TDK kick-started the MCU but it certainly helped along the way"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/comics/2022/07/07/christian-bale-gorr-thor-love-thunder/share
Bale starred as Batman — and an even better Bruce Wayne — in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” trilogy, before comic book-inspired movies became a mainstay. In 2005 his “Batman Begins” brought the franchise back to life after 1997’s dismal “Batman and Robin.”
He returned in 2008’s “The Dark Knight” alongside an Academy Award-winning performance from the late Heath Ledger as the Joker. The film grossed over a billion dollars at the global box office, the same year the MCU released its first film, “Iron Man.” That marked the last time Warner Bros. and DC Comics would win a summer slugfest with Marvel Studios. By the time Bale returned for “The Dark Knight Rises” in 2012, the Avengers had been assembled.
“I would [tell people] we’re going to sort of do Batman, but take him seriously. I had tons of people laugh at me and just say, ‘well that’s just not going to work at all,’” Bale said. “So, it’s wonderful to be a part of a trilogy that proved those people wrong. I’m not certain if it kick-started [the MCU] but it certainly helped along the way.”