Director Christopher Nolan has a title for the upcoming third film in his “Batman” series: The Dark Knight Rises. The auteur recently confirmed such news to Hero Complex. Additionally, he takes down one of the most prevalent rumors on the net concerning the film’s villain:
“It won’t be the Riddler.”
Just like that, the speculation ends. On a less significant note, Nolan also debunks the idea of Mr. Freeze being the villain. He was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Joel Schumacher’s infamous Batman and Robin, a film that singlehandedly killed the superhero/comic book genre for several years. It’s a film that many don’t remember or maybe we all purposely shoved it out of our minds.
Getting back to the story at hand, if it’s not the Riddler that will be featured, which villain or villains will? Well, take a look at what Nolan had to say about the characters:
“We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones,”
Does this mean that Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow could be making a comeback? Will the Joker sneak back into the picture? It’d be surprising if the Joker returned, especially given Heath Ledger’s timeless Oscar-winning performance that probably couldn’t be matched by any actor in Hollywood right now, but don’t count out the Scarecrow: he had a brief appearance in The Dark Knight, and Murphy had a pivotal role in Nolan’s most recent venture Inception.
What about female villains though? Among the most iconic of the ladies in the “Batman” comics include Catwoman and Poison Ivy. Oscar nominees Michelle Pfeiffer and Uma Thurman portrayed these villains, respectively, in Batman Returns and Batman and Robin.
With all of this in mind, what are we to make of Tom Hardy and his reported “leading role” in the film? It’s likely that Nolan will have more than one villain in the film, so we can expect dual villains: one portrayed by Hardy and potentially Scarecrow or a female villain.
Regardless of what villain gets to fight the Caped Crusader, this supposedly final film in this incarnation of “Batman” looks to be a marvelous piece of cinema.
