BATMAN star Christian Bale has declared he will quit the comic book movie franchise if producers ever decide to reintroduce the caped crusader's sidekick ROBIN.

Bale took on the role of the legendary action hero in 2005's Batman Begins and will be seen again in The Dark Knight, which is due for release later this month (Jul08).

But the actor is hoping that the character of Robin is not brought back into any of future Batman movies - because he will resign in protest.

He says, "If Robin crops up in one of the new Batman films, I'll be chaining myself up somewhere and refusing to go to work."