Who will rise against the Dark Knight?

Rumours, rumours, rumours…  up until two weeks ago I was willing to bet a few hundred bucks on Joseph Gordon Levitt being cast as The Riddler in Chris Nolan’s final Batman film (now officially titled ‘The Dark Knight Rises').  But in a recent interview, Nolan shut down these suspicions stating that Edward Nigma AKA The Riddler will not be in the film.  It was a natural progression for Nolan to write Nigma as the next baddie and whilst this news comes as a surprise it also presents an interesting opportunity to write in a slightly more obscure character.  We’ve seen several of Batman's core villains already part Nolan’s Batman universe, namely, Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul (Batman Begins) and Two Face and The Joker (The Dark Knight), but who is left?





The famed director has already gone on record to say that as well as the The Riddler not being in the third act, neither will Mr Freeze (now we wouldn’t want to taint Arnie’s fantastic interpretation) or the Penguin. Tom Hardy has officially being cast (whether or not he actually is the bad guy remains to be seen) who exactly will be Christian Bale’s final foe?

The Dark Knight was more in tune with big city crime films than most comic book films.  Nolan’s Batman universe is more tactile, plausible and, for lack of a better word, real than previous Batman films and not necessarily THAT fantastic in its approach.  making it difficult to really include characters such as Killer Croc or Clayface in this list.  We have also seen Nolan exhibit some creative licence (such as the inclusion of key character Rachel Dawes who was never in any Batman comic to my knowledge), so does this mean we could potentially see an all new villain straight from the devious mind of Christopher Nolan?  Only time will tell.  Anyway here’s the fucking list:

Hush AKA Thomas "Tommy" Elliot

Childhood friend of Bruce Wayne, Hush appeared for the first time in 2003 and is a relatively new villain.  Hush is a master surgeon (see bandages) and expert marksman with no superpowers as it were.  Not exactly a 'classic' villain but he would be an interesting choice however my concerns are having to spend time on his origins and background with Wayne which may eat into the film's running time.  



Bane

Bane has previously appeared in Batman & Robin as the extremely dumb sidekick to Poison Ivy.  The character was given a rather raw deal as his comic book counterpart significantly more clever and quite devious.  Could Nolan bring the character up to speed and give him the film depiction he deserves?  We could even see the famed back breaking moment?  Time will tell



Deadshot AKA Floyd Lawton

An assassin who never misses, Deadshot could be a most interesting character to include in the finale.  Batman is on the run, taking on the sins of Two Face, maybe Deadshot is hired out to kill the Dark Knight?  Could be very cool!