Batman 3 is “The Dark Knight Rises”

Christopher Nolan has revealed in an interview with the LA Times Hero Complex that the title of the next Batman film will lend closely to the previous one: “The Dark Knight Rises”  He also finally put the rumor of the Riddler to bed: the iconic villain will not be in the film.

The title certain says something for cohesiveness and frankly, it will do better for word-of-mouth to keep the title close to the one that had the biggest opening weekend in U.S. history. It also makes sense, because we know that Batman outcasted himself at the end of “The Dark Knight” and will probably have some pressing reason to reclaim hero status.

The Riddler news is a bit surprising, because the villain has a huge profile and would seem perfect for what Nolan does best. As for the character situation, Nolan also said:

“We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones.”

Okay, so we know that Nolan has said the Joker isn’t coming back because of Heath Ledger; Nolan has said that publicly. Harvey Dent is dead (as far as we know), but I wouldn’t mind him coming back to life at some point so long as there was a legitimate reason. The Scarecrow is still alive I suppose, but as much as I like Cillian Murphy, he’s not quite exciting. Then again, read that sentence and you’ll see that it simply means some characters will be from the past films, some will be new. I’m pretty confident he’s saying nothing.

Hero Complex also managed to knock Mr. Freeze out of the running too, so allay your fears about that one, not that a Nolan version of the character wouldn’t put the Schwarzenegger version to shame.

I’m a bit sad that the Riddler is out of the running, but fans of the comic will probably be pumped that a more obscure villain might rise to fame in his stead.

So while we have the title (keep an eye out for ridiculous amounts of fan-made poster art), more questions arise about the villain though Tom Hardy could well be playing him/one of them. Hopefully answers sooner than later with “The Dark Knight Rises” beginning filming in a few months.