Batman 3 Gets a Title but Nixes a Villain

Christopher Nolan has announced the title for his third Batman movie: The Dark Knight Rises.

Along with killing 3D for filming (yea!), he’s also said that Edward Nygma aka The Riddler will not be the villain used in this film.

So, keeping in mind Nolan’s desire to keep these films “grounded in reality,” what villain do you think he’ll go with?

Personally, I’m a little bummed that The Riddler won’t be the villain. I got a chance to read the DC “Justice” series not long after The Dark Knight came out, and I felt that Nygma would be the perfect villain. A criminal master mind with a psychological disorder that prohibits him from lying (thus the use of riddles).

Here’s my spit-balled list based on the “reality” constriction:

  • Bane – Go read “Knightfall” and you’ll know why.
  • Catwoman – Lord I hope not.
  • Deadshot – A suicidal assassin? Sounds like something right up Nolan’s alley.
  • Firefly – Some men really do want to watch the world burn.
  • Harley Quinn – With the Joker not being recast, why not give us his psychotic girlfriend?
  • The Mad Hatter – All sorts of crazy.
  • The Penguin – Could be creepy fun.
  • Ra’s al Ghul – He doesn’t die, does he?
  • The Ventriloquist – In Nolan’s hands, this could be really freaking creepy.

8 replies on “Batman 3 Gets a Title but Nixes a Villain”

  1. Catwoman and the Penguin have been over-used, but they’re recognized, and I don’t think either has ever been done well in a Batman movie.

    Neither are particularly far-fetched.

  2. The Riddler was an obscure and uninteresting villain (I still find the latter point true, though I haven’t read Justice) before the TV show made him famous. I vote for promoting an obscure villain, one the movie can really develop.

    Or Killer Croc, though he’s not especially “grounded in reality.”

  3. I agree that Catwoman is overused. Harley could be interesting but without The Joker, I don’t see that happening. I suspect Bane might be the direction they are going in.

  4. I’d like to see a villain who stays in the shadows. We’ve got the dedicated crime fighter Batman, but I’d still like to see the “world’s greatest detective” Batman. I’d love a movie with a string-puller, and Batman would have to deduce who it is before he could properly deal with him. The original Bane could do it (and not that… thing George Clooney faced) and we could get Deadshot and/or Firefly as hired thugs as a bonus.

  5. I’d really like Ra’s al Ghul, but it would be too easy to mess up — they’d have to work pretty hard to make a version that would appeal to popular culture and stay reasonably true to the comic.

  6. Doubt we will see Ra’s al Ghul, as he was the main antagonist in the first Nolan film, and seemed pretty far away from his immortality-granting Lazarus Pool when Bats dropped that train on him…

    I would have liked to have seen a properly-done Riddler, but barring that I’m up for Penguin as the Nightclub-Owner-Kingpin figure, perhaps with some of the minor villains as enforcers. Sort of a gang war thing, with the eccentrics (possibly Batman-popularity attributed?) vs. the “mundane” gangsters that we have already seen.

  7. Catwoman could be done well, I think. I’d be wary though, and I expect they’ll stay away from her because of Batman Returns and Catwoman the unfilm.

    It would be nice to see a villain who hasn’t been in a Batman film before, although I am a bit disappointed Nolan’s not doing the Riddler this time, as he could be amazing and I need something to wash the memory of Batman Forever out of my head.

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