So sayeth the IMDB (and Gary Oldman)…
So, is it too early to speculate? Because I am giddy.
Well, I’d like them to make it a World’s Finest movie, but my hope is faint.
I’m excited about this, and I really want to see where this is going.
After Ledger’s death I know I heard rumors that the Joker was originally supposed to figure prominently into a sequel which is why they left his character alive at the end of “Dark Knight.” I also know that Nolan has said he’s not sure about continuing after all the hoopla over that movie so I hope this means Warner Brothers has him on board now. I can’t say that I wouldn’t see it regardless, but I’m really hoping we don’t see another Schumacher situation developing here.
(And for godsakes please, no Robin! Robin doesn’t work in live action.)
So speculation time… Who’s the villain?
Is Two Face going to be back? (The obvious choice.) Will it be The Riddler as we’ve seen heavily rumored? Catwoman? (Angelina please…) Harley? Someone we haven’t seen in a movie before?
I think we should start a rumor that Jack Nicholson will return as The Joker.
I hope it’s not Two-Face. I think one of the major appeals of superhero sequels is new villains. I think both the Riddler and the Penguin could work if appropriately reimagined to fit Nolan’s more “realistic” universe.
I think the Riddler, for instance, could work if he was interpreted as a very dark, Saw-type villain, perhaps even a serial killer, who sets up elaborate puzzles and traps. I would especially like it if the riddles were made truly intelligent and hard, challenging to the audience while still being fair.
They’d have to get rid of the stupid question mark costume. though. I just don’t see how that can work in Nolan’s universe – maybe he find a way to incorporate question marks into the wardrobe in a more subtle, less cartoony way.
The Penguin could still work as a mob boss with a sophisticated, high society affect and a fondness for birds, but the umbrella toys would have to be tweaked to minimize silliness.
I would like to see Johnny Depp as the Riddler (I think he’s one of the few actors who could match Ledger’s charm and magnetism), and maybe Philip Seymore Hoffman as Oswald C. Cobblepot. He’s a little tall for the character, though.
Screw that, Cesar Romero is returning as the Joker. (Dead? Woddya mean dead?)
You could work in Poison Ivy for varying degrees of adherence to the source, or Catwoman (I really do think Alfred’s line was hinting at that one), if you want to get esoteric there’s the Mad Hatter though he may read like a Scarecrow rehash. Harley could also work if you tweak her backstory a bit.
Wasn’t there a rumor a little while ago about Scarlett Johansson playing Catwoman? I can’t think of a single good reason NOT to put her in a skin tight, spandex leotard.
I really believe Nolan is too good to try to slip in someone else as Two-Face and tell us he’s alive. He’s a bad guy who can’t support a full-length story. Me, I want Deathstroke to show up. Why not? He can give us fun combat scenes, and he’s not really tied to any particular hero, and it will (possibly) pull in some additional comic fanboys.
We’ll probably see something like that anyway as Johansson was cast as Black Widow in the Iron Man sequel. There haven’t haven’t been any latex shots posted yet, but I’m sure they’re coming. (They better be…) 
I still vote for Angelina. 
The Riddler as serial killer is too similar to the Joker from the last film.
Penguin seems too goofy for the new, non-campy Batman (actually, that’s a problem with a lot of villians).
Catwoman seems a decent guess. They killed off Batman’s love interest in the last movie, and Hollywood blockbusters are required by LAW to have a romantic subplot crammed in somewhere, so they’ll have to include a new female character anyways.
They played up how Batman is now a hunted man in the last film, so an assasain type character hired by the government seems not impossible. Bane, Deathstroke, etc could all work here.
I’m pretty skeptical about this. I loved Batman Begins-- it’s one of my favorite comic book movies of all time, if not my single favorite-- but the more I think about The Dark Knight, the more disappointed I am. It really dragged towards the end, and the editor earned a Razzie in a big way. I’m increasingly repulsed by the “cut every 1.3 seconds” style of action editing that has taken over in Hollywood. I also thought the Two-Face story was shoe-horned in and they should’ve focused on Batman and the Joker more.
Nolan earned a lot of points with me on Batman Begins, but he cashed most of them in with The Dark Knight. I’ll be shocked if the 3rd film isn’t more of the stuff I disliked and less of the stuff I liked. That’s typically how these things go.
Totally agreed, the Dark Knight was a mess from a story and narrative perspective. I hope they dial it back for the next one.
What if it’s really really cold and she…oh wait…skin tight suit…cold weather. Damn. You’re right!
I can hardly wait. Gordon’s little monologue at the end about how they’ll chase him because he’s the only one who can take it left me wanting more in a way no other movie i’ve ever seen has.
Hopefully they dedicate a reasonable amount of time to that story arc in the next one. I could see it easily being about that & Two Face alone.
Something like:
Gordon is keeping Dent alive at a prison/hospital while not really knowing what to do with him. Dent comes to and breaks out. He resumes his public persona as the White Knight of Gotham. Batman is still a fugitive and so it’s up to Two Face to catch him. Gordon is unable to do anything to impede Dent publicly for fear of undoing all the good he did. But Batman and Gordon scheme to try to bring Two Face(who would, of course, be doing horrible things in private) down without plunging Gotham into the hellhole it was in the first movie. Awesomeness ensues.
How would this work, with his face and psyche ruined?
Count me among the six people in America who are not excited about this movie. Christopher Nolan is a hack and an untalented simp, using cheap cliches and uninteresting plot devices; I thought that both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were absolute trash, and that Christian Bale is a terrible Batman. Bale, an extremely gifted actor, manages to play Batman like a block of concrete - it almost makes me wonder if the whole thing is a lark for him or something.
Things about The Dark Knight that were lame:
The Harvey Dent storyline was poorly woven into the main plot; furthermore, his transformation was completely predictable and boring. And the makeup effects or whatever it was, for his face - ridiculous! It looked like a character model from Half-Life 2.
The subplot about the financier from Hong Kong or whatever he was - totally a pointless diversion that added nothing whatsoever to the movie.
The thing with the two boats - SO heavy-handed, implausible, and just all-around lame as a plot device within the movie.
The new bat-vehicle was stupid looking.
Chemistry with the female, non-existent.
Batman’s voice sounded ludicrous.
The only good thing about the film was Heath Ledger’s acting. He was woefully underused though.
Let me point out, however, that I am one of those loony losers who liked Tim Burton’s interpretation of the Batman world, and I also hated Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, and I hate all the new video games with “gritty” brown-and-gray backgrounds, and I think all these things are part of an overall trend to make everything “serious” and “intense” and “gritty”, and do away with any attempt at quirky humor or general “color” to the work. The horrible remake of Taking of Pelham 123 is yet another example.
So, no, I am not excited about this film. Of course, I’ll wind up seeing it, but I already know I’m not going to like it.
The only recent superhero movie I liked was Iron Man. That movie had some color! It had style to it! Everything else I’ve seen lately, in the superhero genre - with the possible exception of the half-decent Wolverine Origins - has been trash.
The Golden/Silver Age Penguin would be a poor fit in these movies, true, but I think the more recent versions of the character as a nightclub owner moonlighting as a fence, underworld fixer and source of information could be made to work. Not as the primary villain, perhaps, but surely as a secondary character.
He could actually wear a very obvious but stylish mask, giving him a public appearance as a noble sympathetic “Phantom” character. As to his psyche, either split personality (in which there is a real White Knight HD operating which gives way to 2F) or psychopathic hypocrisy (in the original sense of the word as “mask-wearing play-acting”).
Of course, the perfect Batman 3 would conclude with this scene…
After 2+ hrs of whatever, we’re at Arkham Asylum. An attendant or doctor or whatever escorts a mousy bespectacled young woman down the hall, telling her that the patient has been totally non-responsive since committing some ghastly crime while incarcerated & is now held in a cell with no means of escape or physical contact with anyone. She comes to the transparent cubicle & speaks to the figure hunched in the corner.
The woman is a dishwater blond Alyson Hannigan & she says something like “Good morning, Sir. Might we talk for a while? I’d like to get to know you. I’m Dr. Quinzel. You can call me that or Harlene, if you like. I’m afraid you’ve never given us a name, so could I call you… Mr J.?”
The figure raises his green-maned head, and a pale red-lipped Crispin Glover grins at her and speaks one word- “Daaarliiiinnnng!”
I’ll keep writing this until they make it.
I’ve always predicted that the Commissioner Gordon character had a larger and more complex part coming up in a future movie. Otherwise, why would Nolan bother casting one of the greatest actors of our time in such a trivial role? So far, Oldman has been completely wasted. So I’m betting he steps up big time in the next outing…TRM