The Dark Knight smashed box office records and sent Batman fans into a frenzy. Fans raved about the late actor Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker, the rise and fall of Two-Face (actor Aaron Eckhart), and mourned the death of Rachel Dawes (actress Maggie Gyllenhaal). But new rumors are beginning to swirl, and message boards across the web are lighting up with posts about the next movie in the series, Batman 3.
An article by Jim Vejvoda on IGN speculates that the next Batman movie will “focus on the redemption of the Caped Crusader.” While the next storyline has been speculated about, the real question on everyone’s minds is, “who will the next villains be?”
Will it be Oswald Cobblepot, better known as The Penguin? Or maybe the scantily clad Selena Kyle will slink her way back into the Bat’s heart as Catwoman. Some fans on a few message boards have speculated about the return of Poison Ivy as well.
At this point it’s hard to say. It would be my guess that none of the aforementioned characters will make another appearance in a Batman film. Although director Christopher Nolan chose to resurrect The Joker (originally played by Jack Nicholson) I’d be hard pressed to say that he’d resort to bringing back the other characters from the past movies.
In the same vein, I personally would have to count Ra’s Ah Ghul out of the sequel to the Dark Knight. Although possible, due to the lazarus pit in the comic books, cartoony antics like this don’t fit well with Nolan’s new vision of the Batman series.
While most of the character speculation has been limited to a few fan sites and message boards one character from Batman’s past has been talked about repeatedly, The Riddler.
The green clad narcissist from the comics has yet to make an appearance in a Batman film, and given Nolan’s reputation with character development, The Riddler seems a likely candidate. Think he seems too silly a villain, the same could have been said about The Joker as a serious threat to Gotham city. But, instead of following the beaten path, Nolan’s directing along with Ledger’s phenomenal performance, developed The Joker into something much more disturbing and serious than ever previously conceived. The same potential exists with The Riddler’s character.
Given the right actor and Nolan’s incredible skill as a director The Riddler could pose the kind of threat that was foreshadowed at the end of The Dark Knight. And if fan sites and message boards are right, the right actor may already have been picked out, Johnny Depp.
Depp has the acting chops to potentially stand toe to toe with Ledger’s final performance as The Joker.
At this point it’s hard to say whether or not another Nolan directed Batman movie will grace the silver screen, and it’s even more difficult to say which villains will plot to destroy Gotham if the third installment ever comes to fruition, but chances are that we haven’t seen the last of the Dark Knight.
