The HBO Crime Drama That Inspired Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Gave Us The Perfect Batman Sequel

The Dark Knight is the ultimate Batman movie and one of the greatest films ever made, but it might not have happened if Christopher Nolan hadn’t seen a certain iconic HBO crime drama. Nolan was already an acclaimed filmmaker after helming Memento, Batman Begins, and The Prestige, but The Dark Knight is the bona fide blockbuster that made him a household name and paved the way for Inception, Dunkirk, and Oppenheimer. The gritty realism of The Dark Knight ended up influencing the next wave of blockbusters, but The Dark Knight itself was influenced by a previous seminal work.