No word yet on who Gordon-Levitt may play, but fanboys around the Web — not yet ready to give up on the well-traveled rumor that Batman foe
Hugo Strange will appear in Nolan’s third and final Bat-flick — are speculating that Gordon-Levitt will take on the role of the mad shrink whose comic book resume of evil includes
cracking the code of the caped crusader’s secret identity and then trying to sell it other super villains
But there could be other possibilities, too. Many fans — noting that Gordon-Levitt has a passing facial resemblance to Heath Ledger — are speculating he could be tapped to play a younger version of
Joker in flashbacks. (Or how about this idea that just popped into my brain: Remember all those wannabe Batmans in
The Dark Knight? What if we find out that in
The Dark Knight Rises, there’s now a gang of wannabe Jokers giving Gotham City money-burning, eyeball-stabbing, ferry-blowing grief? What if Gordon-Levitt is one of them, if not their leader?)
Some fans think the thesp would make a fine, funny, fiendish version of
The Riddler. I can picture Gordon-Levitt in manic
SNL-hosting mode bouncing around the screen in question mark-imprinted tights and giggling up a “Riddle me THIS, Batman!” dark comedy storm — but remember,
Nolan did tell The Los Angeles Times a couple months back that The Riddler won’t be in the film.
Casting Gordon-Levitt as a villain, however, would put
The Dark Knight Rises at risk of bad guy overload. We have Hathaway playing
Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman, though Nolan conspicuously omitted the word “Catwoman” in
Hathaway’s casting announcement) and Hardy playing
Bane. So what do you guys think of Batman taking on a protege in
The Dark Knight Rises? No, not Robin the Boy Wonder —
I’m thinking Nightwing, a.k.a. Robin/Dick Grayson all grown up?
