Last week, director Christopher Nolan announced that the upcoming third Batman movie would be called The Dark Knight Rises. Unfortunately, this raised a lot more questions than it answered, such as:
"Who will be the villain?"
"What is the female role Nolan is supposedly casting for?"
"When will Robin make an appearance?"
"What can we expect the movie to contain?"
"Seriously, The Dark Knight Rises??"
Well, I'm going to try and answer as many of these questions as best I can.
It was originally rumored that the villain in the third Batman movie was going to be any combination of The Riddler, Mr. Freeze, The Penguin, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Killer Croc, Two-Face again or possibly even The Joker. So far, no villains have been announced, but Nolan has confirmed that neither The Riddler nor Mr. Freeze will be in the film. Given the fact that there is an open tryout for a lead female role, I assume this will be Catwoman. However, it could very well be someone like Vicki Vale as another love interest for Batman following the death of Rachel Dawes.
So, if there are no announced villains, who could we reasonably expect to be in the film?
The Penguin would make a good substitute for the Falcone family, already well established in the first film and mentioned in the second. It would certainly be reasonable to guess that The Penguin's arrival in Gotham could spark a large conflict between himself and the Falcones in Gotham's seedy organized crime ring. Working through his Iceberg Lounge, The Penguin wouldn't need to be squeezed into the role of a petty crook stealing his way through henchmen salaries; he could create an interesting dynamic between the roughneck Falcones situated in the slum Narrows district, and his upper class nightclub providing a front for his underhanded business dealings. While he likely wouldn't be the main villain, he would still be interesting.
Also along the lines of the gang warfare, Black Mask would be worthy of the third movie, and several fansites have him as one of the likeliest in the new movie. Black Mask would also be able to fit the role of Penguin as mentioned above, but as a reference to the two previous movies, he's also crazy and he has a connection to Batman since childhood. Through his hatred of his parents, fascination with masks, and disfigurement, Black Mask would be a great villain for Batman to face.
The final villain possibility I'm going to discus is Catwoman. Out of all the speculation of The Dark Knight Rises, Catwoman is the most likely villain in my book. As stated above, Bruce Wayne/Batman has no love interest at this point, making the position open for Selina Kyle/Catwoman. The only obstacle I can foresee in this situation is how she would relate to any other Batman villain that would be in this movie. She always, of course, could be an anti-hero and assist Batman while committing crimes, and I think that would be a refreshing change from only having Batman fighting. Catwoman also could relate to how the second movie ended, with much of Gotham hating Batman and the police chasing after him. Being spotted with the thief could raise tension between Commissioner Gordon and Batman, along with giving Batman the aforementioned love interest while adding the scandal of the relationship.
Robin, the Boy Wonder, definitely won't be making an appearance in this or any Nolan Batman movie, stated by both Nolan and Bale that they won't be involved in a movie containing Robin. Bale just doesn't want him in the movie, I guess, and Nolan agreed, stating Robin would detract from the dark nature of the film. I disagree, provided that they stretched the boundaries and made Jason Todd be the first Robin. As ludicrous as this seems, a vengeful Todd going after organized crime by himself would force Batman to step in and show him the ropes while possibly taking him under his wing. It could also add darkness to the plot if Robin actually killed a suspect while as Robin, making Batman consider once again if what he's doing is worthwhile. Of course, this wouldn't be very original, as it would be the second movie almost all over again.Overall, I expect this movie to start with the established conflict of Batman vs. Gotham. This could evolve as a new threat enters into Gotham and terrorizes the city once again. This would cause Gordan and Batman to put aside their differences and reforge their connection, allowing the police and Batman to resolve the conflict and the trilogy. This movie has been speculated as Christopher Nolan's last Batman movie, and we could assume it would be Christian Bale's last as well, due to comments that he made stating he would return as long as Nolan did. If it is the pair's last contribution to the film series, then we could expect the film to tie up all loose ends and allow another director to take the series in a different direction.
And yes, it is called The Dark Knight Rises. I thought it was a little too much like the second movie's title, being that 75% of it IS the second movie's title. I expected it to be more along the lines of The Dark Knight, where the title is another name for Batman. I guess Nolan didn't like/consider The Caped Crusader or World's Greatest Detective, or, what would be totally awesome, The Goddamn Batman. Anyway, the movie is set to start filming in April 2011, with a release of July 20, 2012.
