The Dark Knight is perhaps the darkest of all popular superheroes, and that amuses director Tim Burton, who can recall when people were criticizing him in the late 80s and early 90s for going that route with his Batman movies. In 1989, Burton released his first Batman film with Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne. The two later collaborated on the sequel, Batman Returns, which was released in 1992. Burton walked away ahead of a planned third film due to some friction with the studio, and Keaton would soon after follow suit, leading to Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever with Val Kilmer.

In a new interview with Empire, Burton took some time to reflect on his Batman films. He has noticed the recent success of The Batman, which has fully embraced the idea of making Batman as dark as can possibly be. It's ironic for Burton who remembers when there was criticism over his Batman movies being "too dark," which, at the time, was a stark contrast to the bright, cheeky Batman series with Adam West. It was seen as a gamble for Burton to go darker with Batman and Batman Returns, but now the films are seen as very highly revered.

"It is funny to see this now, because all these memories come back of, ‘It’s too dark’, so, it makes me laugh a little bit."

After Burton parted ways with the franchise, Warner Bros. indeed sought to bring the more cartoonish aspects of the comic books and original TV series to the new films. This was seen in Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, neither of which seemed to achieve the same levels of popularity as the Burton movies. It's amusing for Burton, who finds it odd that he was criticized for his movies just to see the Dark Knight be given nipples in the next one.

“[Back then] they went the other way. That’s the funny thing about it. But then I was like, ‘Wait a minute. Okay. Hold on a second here. You complain about me, I’m too weird, I’m too dark, and then you put nipples on the costume? Go f*** yourself.’ Seriously. So yeah, I think that’s why I didn’t end up [doing a third film]…”

Related: Scariest Moments from Tim Burton's Movies, Ranked

Tim Burton Had His Reasons for Going Dark

Danny Devito as Penguin in Batman Returns
Warner Bros.

Tim Burton explained that he was not intentionally just looking to make his Batman movies dark. That's just what ended up happening as a result of the vision he had for these characters. Burton does say that it was experimental to take his Batman films in different directions, especially as compared to the Adam West series, but that he's really happy with how the "experiment' has turned out.

“I’m not just overly dark. That represents me in the sense that… that’s how I see things. It’s not meant as pure darkness. There’s a mixture. I feel really fondly about it because of the weird experiment that it felt like."

The print issue of Empire featuring Burton's full interview goes on sale on June 9.