Warner Bros. has recently set the release date for Christopher Nolan’s (“Dunkirk”) next film for July 17, 2020. That is only a little over a year from now, which means production should be starting soon. The script is probably done or is getting the final touches, and that is all we know right now. Anticipation is running high, as this next Nolan film could be about absolutely anything.

Audiences were recently treated to the IMAX war spectacle that is “Dunkirk,” an intimate, intense and gripping cross section of linking stories that could be summed up as just Nolan showing off his technical skill. Almost every shot is dramatically beautiful and set up with an eye for precision. “Dunkirk” and whatever Nolan decides to do next are the two movies of whatever era one would like to deem the director is in, but looking back at his filmography proves there is a rhythm with his themes and how they are released in groups of threes.

Nolan crafted three shorts to begin, notably “Doodlebug,” but before, he made “Tarantella” and “Larceny.” All of these are dark, odd, slightly twisted works about insanity and the inner workings of the mind. They reflect society and the actions of people.

Then came his first feature, “Following,” which will be counted as the first in the next group of three. It does emulate his shorts stylistically the most out of his films, but that is most likely due to it being independent with him working on a very limited budget. It is structured more like a mystery than his shorts were, which could be called by some as absurdist.

“Memento” was his first studio film and truly showed what Nolan was capable of with more of a budget and other resources. It had the darkness similar to the projects he had created in his education, but it was reflected in the background and not so much in the foreground. It is an elaborately structured mystery that is paced like a thriller and is effective regardless if one knows what is coming next. The third of his first set of features is another mystery that is a little more straightforward, but that is probably due to the fact that he did not write the script, and that is “Insomnia.” It is definitely more of a traditional studio crime film, but his fingerprints are all over it.

Now, these next two sets were released in an alternative fashion. So far, we have explored his shorts and his first three features, all dark mysteries that could also be described as his education. He perfected Batman in “The Dark Knight” trilogy and between-installment releases that are his most Stanley Kubrick-esque films, “The Prestige,” “Inception” and “Interstellar.” They are mysteries just like his early work, but they ask much bigger questions and are set with much greater stakes in mind.

“The Prestige” sets two competing magicians against each other who would sacrifice everything in their lives to win. “Inception” explores the other side of life: sleep and the dreams that inhabit it. “Interstellar” brought us to space and bent time, life and our emotions all at the same time. These three films also explore the idea of family in small and varying ways within each one.

Keep in mind Nolan also released “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight,” and “The Dark Knight Rises” to kick things off in between his other set. It is pretty incredible that he consistently produced this quality of work over the course of those nine years. People would disagree about the quality of “The Dark Knight Rises,” but those people would also be wrong. Nolan’s Batman films acted as crime films that felt true to the character in ways the other Batman films never explored before, feeling more intimate and relying more on emotional conflict and character arcs and journeys rather than gadgets and bright colors.

“Dunkirk” followed up “Interstellar” three years later, and it seems to have opened yet another course in this filmmaker’s journey. So what is coming in 2020? If themes are anything to go off, it would be another factually accurate historical period piece. In the same way his other films with similar themes can be so different, it is obvious his next one will be too, and it is just exciting to think about. Medieval times? The Holocaust? Colonial times? The Middle Ages? Hopefully audiences can find out something sooner rather than later.

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