After a few years of stepping away from the industry due to abuse allegations, Armie Hammer is getting back in action with the first The Dark Knight images. The Social Network alum is set to lead the action-thriller as Sanders, a man fed up with the rise in crime in his area who elects to become a hard-hitting vigilante, and subsequently an internet sensation, attracting the attention of Interpol. Hailing from controversial writer/director Uwe Boll, The Dark Knight‘s cast is also set to include Saw veteran Costas Mandylor, Jenny Paris and Benjamin Schnau.

A couple of weeks after production began on the film, Variety has unveiled the first images of Hammer from The Dark Knight. The first pH๏τo showcases Hammer’s character in action as he stomps a figure situated below the camera’s sight, while the second image sees the Golden Globe nominee standing alongside Boll, Mandylor and executive producer Michael Roesch on set, donned up in combat gear with the wall behind them featuring fake blood and holes from gunsH๏τs. Check out the images below:

In addition to the images, the publication also reports that Boll is already building further plans for The Dark Knight. The filmmaker is currently collaborating with Polygon Art, the German independent video game developer best known for military action and simulation тιтles, to develop a video game adaptation based on the vigilante thriller.

What This All Means For The Dark Knight

Hammer & Boll Are Looking To Make Their Own Franchise

Though the early plot details for the film pointed in said direction, the first Dark Knight images clearly point to the action-thriller continuing the genre trend of one-man-army stories. Ever since Liam Neeson’s Taken franchise launched, the sole hero formula blew up to become one of the most utilized in the genre, ranging from the highs of Keanu Reeves’ John Wick franchise and Jason Statham’s The Beekeeper to the lows of Neeson’s various subsequent action movies and Gerard Butler’s Has Fallen series.

Given Boll is largely producing the film himself alongside Boris Velican, his plans for a Dark Knight franchise could very well come to fruition. While he still has to find a distributor partner to release the film and try and either recoup his budget or make a profit, his having a bigger oversight on the financial side of things would provide him with a better picture of how best to expand the series beyond the first film. Additionally, with Hammer mounting an acting comeback with Boll’s movie and a few other projects, that alone may draw enough intrigue for the film to perform well.

One of the more interesting updates is that Boll is working to make a video game adaptation of The Dark Knight, a flip from his biggest career trend of adapting video games for the screen. Having started with the widely panned 2003 House of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ movie, a large majority of Boll’s filmography are similarly poorly received movie adaptations, including the Christian Slater-starring Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne and Jason Statham’s In the Name of the King. In spite of their poor reviews, Boll made sequels to many of them, namely BloodRayne and In the Name of the King.

Our Take On The Dark Knight’s Franchise Plans

There Are A Lot Of Hurdles To Overcome

Despite his ambitions for a multimedia franchise to come from the film, Boll has a long way to go before The Dark Knight can successfully expand beyond its first movie. Hammer is still considered a controversial figure coming off of his cannibalism and abuse allegations, while the writer/director himself has also frequently come under fire for his abrasive responses to critics’ negative reviews of his films. That said, with his 2024 crime drama First Shift finding success on Paramount+ in spite of its behind-the-scenes controversies, I could see The Dark Knight becoming something of a cult movie.

Source: Variety