Christopher Nolan has revealed the title of his third Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, and that the villains will not be either The Riddler or Mr. Freeze (the latter coming as a great relief to all, I’m sure). The Dark Knight Rises is due for a 2012 release and—even more exciting than any news about villains—it will not be in 3D.
Early response from Batman fandom regarding the title has ranged from ambivalent to “well, I don’t hate it,” but whatever else one can say about it, it is a smart bit of branding considering that The Dark Knight grossed a billion dollars worldwide. It also works in terms of where the narrative left off at the end of the last movie: Batman an outlaw, on the run. This sets up the inevitable “Oh no! A new menace has befallen our fair Gotham! Where oh where is our Dark Knight in shining armor?” first act climax in the new movie.
Since we have a couple years and an internet on which to discuss such things, let us now speculate on just which menace will befall fair Gotham. Nolan has definitively, unambiguously stated that it will not be The Riddler. My own two cents (of violently devalued internet dollars) is that we are most likely looking at an extremely dark, deeply nuanced re-imagining of Harley Quinn. Or a reclamation of Catwoman, with similar darkness and nuance, from the regrettable Halle Berry misadventure.
Who do you think it’ll be? (“I don’t care” is an acceptable response, as is “I’m willing to wait and see.”)
Danny Bowes is a playwright, filmmaker and blogger. He is also a contributor to nytheatre.com and Premiere.com.
I doubt it will happen, but I’d love to see to a reincarnated Ra’s al-Ghul. With Talia, even.
I think Hush would be pretty awesome.
Penguim, prolly.
I bet it’s a clever misdirect! The villain will be SON OF FREEZE!
In all seriousness, I would LOVE if they made Robin and Catwoman the antagonists. Vigilantes filling the void left by a seemingly vanished Batman, but doing more harm than good. i.e. Maybe Robin acts mostly on anger and is unconcerned with protecting innocents along with fighting crime. Maybe Catwoman steals from the people she saves. The both of them forcing Batman to become a public figure again and show them how being a hero is actually done. It would also tie nicely into the movie series’ themes of heroism and escalation.
It’s not going to be Catwoman – she’s not frightening enough to require Batman to save them. I don’t think it’s going to be Harley, either, not immediately following TDK – but it would be a good teaser at the end of this new film.
Penguin is too “out there,” as is Poison Ivy. Nolan’s kept the villains grounded in reality, and so those two are pretty much ruled out, as is Clayface.
No, I’m going to bet either Black Mask, Zsasz, or the Ventriloquist. The benefits of the last two also offer a lead-in to Dr. Strange, and/or Harley Quinn.
Two Face, literally a villain this time.
or, if we follow the plot of the frank miller comics, the bad guy could be superman.
I’m betting on The Ventriloquist/Scarface or Poison Ivy, even though either of them would be tricky to handle well.
The Ventriloquist/Scarface would be cool because of the clear parallel to Bruce/Batman. But perhaps Nolan feels he’s “been there, done that” with Harvey/Twoface.
And I know it would be tricky to do a “realistic” version of Ivy, but I’m sure Nolan could think of something. She’s just so much fun. Even though I’m a treehugging green-y, for some reason I love a Envronmental Crusader Takes It Too Far story :-D
Hush would be interesting…too little name recognition though, I think. They want someone that your average man on the street at least recognizes.
And penguin would be almost impossible to integrate into the darker batman world Nolan has created. Worse than the riddler, I think.
I agree that Catwoman or Harley Quinn do seem the most likely that I can think of. I think that anyone with super powers or those on the more ridiculous side of the batman villians (like the riddler, penguin, poison ivy, the vintriloquist, etc) would be avoided.
I don’t think that The Penguin would be too far out there. They wouldn’t need to make him deformed like they did with danny divito in batman returns. He’s been depicted in many different ways over the years so I could see Nolan using him as a villian.
I’m sad to hear the the Riddler has been ruled out but I am sure that Nolan will make this an awesome movie reguardless of who the villain turns out to be.
Chandell…..Anyone who makes Aunt Harriet cry true evil.
I saw someone mention the possibility of it being Talia al Gul earlier. To my mind she would be a good villain to close out Nolan’s trilogy. Harley Quinn is a possibility, but it would require recasting someone as The Joker to get her origin in. I can’t see that happening.
Why do people keep saying the Penguin is too far out? He’s a mob boss who happens to be short, fat, and have a big nose.
I agree with flapdragon, that sounds like it would be pretty amazing to have ra’s al-ghul. He knows batman’s true identity, he’s into science/technology, plus talia could be the new love interest
@@@@@Kythorian
Nolan did not create this darker version of Batman. He is loosly basing his movies on the Frank Miller Batman from the 1980’s
Of course, one of the best things about those comics was that half of them were devoted to “old” batman… a 55 year old, retired superhero who realizes that Gotham needs him again. I would really like to see those ones adapted for the big screen, as the final battle, between superman and batman, was simply epic. (Another reason why The Death of Superman should be made into a live action movie).
Anyway, Superman would be a great “villian” for this, or another batman movie, because in the comics he has become America’s only government sanctioned superhero, a pawn of the Reagan administration in the fight against communism. He gets called in to deal with Batman when Batman starts to rack up a pretty serious body count among the criminals of Gotham.
I realize that this will probably not be the case for this movie, as it probably still has christian bale as Batman, so is still focusing on Batman in his youth. My guess is the return of Ra’s al-ghul, with catwoman thrown in as the love interest.
Since, I haven’t seen anyone else mention him. My vote is for Bane as one of the main villains. In fact, Tom Hardy as Bane.
And can I point out that Nolan confirmed that the riddler won’t be in The Dark Knight Rises, but that doesn’t mean Edward Nigma won’t be. Did Edward and Batman work together a few times? And I get that it’s a bit of a leap and kind of a ridiculous distinction to make, but Nolan is one of the few directors that I think would be that sneaky about it.
An antagonist doesn’t have to be a “villain.” I’d like to see a scenario where fugitive Batman is handily eluding all pursuit, until a particularly skilled and unusually wily bounty hunter begins to catch up with him — this guy’s just a kid — a Cockney hard-ass whose name is Grayson, but who has nicknamed himself after a legendary English vigilante outlaw…
This is true, Clay. If we can expect the dark rise of Harley Quinn, though, I think we can be reasonably assured of another Joker appearance (since Harley does nothing that does not defend or release her Mr. J and The Joker doesn’t die at the end of The Dark Knight). Since Heath Ledger was the only Joker I’d ever cast again (my two cents) I’m thinking Harley is out. Catwoman I could understand considering now that Rachel is dead, our Batman needs a female menace to ravage his already guilty conscience.
I too would like to see a Bane appearance (Tom Hardy has my vote). Ras-al-Gul has thing about not dying, so I’d like to see where that would lead, and it would take us away from the T.V. series and back to the comics.
Since the Joker is probably out, I’m out of absolute favorite characters from Batman to enjoy. Killer Croc could pose one hell of a dire threat, and Edward Nigma’s introduction would be a plus. He’s gotta come in some time.
If this is the close-out movie for the series then rather than have Batman retire off into the sunset, I’d like to see it end with something darker, such as Bane snapping Batman’s spine and leaving him motionless on the ground. Now THAT would close-out with a bang!
It would also leave it on a cliffhanger with a wide range of possibilities should they re-open the series.
I’m not sure who the villain will be, but I have a major suspicion that whoever it is will be a “fake hero” to fill the void left by Batman’s fall from grace with the public and Harvey Dent’s definitive drop from politics. I’d place my money on either or both of these roles being filled either by a vigilante character or a smooth-talking corrupt politician. The politician could be very effective in using Batman’s bad reputation to manipulate the populace.
Now that I think about it, I could envision a rehashed dark Penquin to fill the role of corrupt politician. Hmmm…
I guess I don’t understand the anti-Riddler bias here, since I can’t see any reason why Riddler couldn’t be played as a menace with similiar psychopathic leanings as The Joker, just with a different calling card. I’m thinking nasty along the lines of Seven, or The January Man, or something.
I think Frank Gorshin could actually have pulled that off, as I think he could have done far greater depths of evil than he ever got the chance to do. Hm. Christopher Walken? I don’t know.
The villain, if they even have one, will be a subplot. The main plot will be Batman vs the law.
I agree with those that thjink it may be Hush. Lack of name value will only add to seeing it, I believe. Also would generate interest in the graphic novels and comics.
I agree with those that thjink it may be Hush. Lack of name value will only add to seeing it, I believe. Also would generate interest in the graphic novels and comics.
Can we finally have some of the awesome female villains, Chris? PLEASE? And not as a secondary character–as the LEAD? Gotta wash the bad taste of Rachel out of my mouth…ugh.
I hope to hell it’s Two Face, because otherwise I feel like he was wasted. If not him, then whomever, really. I trust Nolan to fit the villains into the world.
Jack Ryder!
Another vigilante might be an interesting way to go. The return of Ra’s al-Ghul would fit with that, as would a Catwoman or Robin character.
The Penguin…hmm…I could maybe see the Penguin as a new mob boss. In these movies, the mob has always been Gotham’s underlying problem. They were the reason Ra’s al-Ghul came to Gotham as a vigilante. They also played a significant role in the second movie. Now, the mob is poised to make a comeback: the Joker is no longer terrorizing them, and Harvey and Rachel, the two DAs most determined to go after them, are dead. The Penguin is the younger brother of one of the mob bosses killed by the Joker, and he is determined to use the Joker’s ruthless methods to improve the lot of his crime family. At the end, Batman’s defeat of Penguin manages to breakup the mob, finally bringing some hope that Gotham’s crime problems might be over for good. That might not be a bad way to end the trilogy.
It’s going to be tough to come up with a villain that won’t be a let down after the joker. We’ll have to see what they manage.
#22 bellman: I agree, but I’d say the main plot will instead be Batman vs. the commuters of the city. Then again, they won’t show a bunch of people sitting in traffic after another elevated highway blows up… ;)
I think this one needs to play up the immitation / inspiration angle touched on in the previous movie. The Sons of Batman (that is, old guys in hockey pads w/ guns) will become more aggressive and dangerous, and we will see a gang of Joker imitators (led by Harley Quinn, no origin story necessary).
There will also be more stand alone and self-interested vigilantism from the likes of Catwoman and others like the Reaper, although I’d love to see them do Dick Grayson or John Paul Valley as a Batman immitator willing to kill.
The finale can be a major disaster in which Batman assumes leadership of the gangs and brings order to chaos in the city, as when the bomb goes off in The Dark Knight Returns. Batman will become a legend, an idea too big for the police to even go after anymore.
At least, that’s how I see the logical conclusion of Nolan’s series going.