Why so serious?

[Tsunami Jones]

So...

Which bad guy is next? My bets on the Minstrel. Dude would sing at bad man whilst playing a lute a MOTHERFUCKING LUTE(possibly filled with crazy purple knockout gas) How bad ass is that?

That's pretty bad ass.

From what I heard, supposedly they're looking for actors for Penguin and The Riddler. If done right, the Riddler could be amazing, since he'd highly contrast with the Joker.

[Coffee 54]

Spoiler :

I'd also like to add how glad I was the Joker's origins were left a mystery. Indiviual audience imaginations can usually top whatever a writer might come up with. That and they even managed to work it into his character, with the Joker telling differing disturbing tales as to how he got his scars. It all worked together very well.

Spoiler :

On the topic of Two-Face, he's one of my favorite villians too. That's why I felt he should have been saved (along with more great Joker moments like the exploding hospital) for the next film. I can however see the downsides to finishing The Dark Knight like that. It would have given the movie something of a cliffhanger ending, which I love but a lot of people don't like, and would have meant the next film would have to devote itself to resolving Dark Knight's story lines instead of introducing new villians.

[dwchang]

So...

Which bad guy is next? My bets on the Minstrel. Dude would sing at bad man whilst playing a lute a MOTHERFUCKING LUTE(possibly filled with crazy purple knockout gas) How bad ass is that?

That's pretty bad ass.

From what I heard, supposedly they're looking for actors for Penguin and The Riddler. If done right, the Riddler could be amazing, since he'd highly contrast with the Joker.

I actually disagree with you. I've discussed this topic (i.e. next villains) with other comic book friends (surprisingly not you TJ ) and I think Christopher Nolan has done a SUPERB job with picking villains. His 'movie universe' is a dark one and if you've noticed, he hasn't chosen any of the 'campy' villains like the Riddler, ones that audiences just wouldn't believe (in a 'reality' sense) like Clayface or just downright retarded ones like King Tut or the Ventriloquist (even the hot one).

The Joker? Two-Face? Scarecrow? All of these villains are A) believable for audiences and B) dark. The Riddler and the Penguin are just too campy given the previous choices...just not cool or dark enough.

With that said, I've given the topic thought and frankly can't think of another villain that fits the criteria and that's unfortunate. Someone like "Hush" would fit, but most movie audiences and casual fans have no idea who that is. Another idea I had would be (and this is all speculation) using the "Holiday Killer" and revealing at the end of the movie that it's Harvey, but that's just me being a wishful fanboy. Although I read that Aaron Eckhart is signed on for another film, but that could mean nothing since they haven't even begun scripting it or anything.

But yeah, most of the 'main' Bat-villains people *know*...they just wouldn't work in this universe. That includes The Riddler, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Cat Woman (God I hope they don't pick her), Mad Hatter (lawlz), Solomon Grundy (bigger lawlz), Mr. Freeze, Clayface and Killer Croc (was in the anime at least).

...how about Stilt-Man or NFL Super Pro TJ? lololololol

[Fall_Child42]

Dude they made a sly reference to cat-woman during the movie.


I'm pretty sure with some modification many of these bad guys could be made more dark.

The riddler especially. More Crazy mad man setting up traps and blowing people up (perhaps some games resulting in death. Kinda like the saw [like the boat thing the joker came up with]) instead of mind control and Riddle me this
batman.

Any Character can be made dark, I mean look at scarface. On the surface he's really campy ... lol ventriloquist talking though scarface puppet, but he has a somewhat similar story to Batman in that his psychosis took off when his parents were murdered in front of him. They both have like a dissociative disorder as a result of it.

After murdering some guy he ends up in prison, and sees a puppet, the puppet starts talking to him, (let's say at night in the shadows) he wakes up kills a few people and escapes from prison.

Scarface is constantly verbally beratting the ventriloquist.

All this shit happens, and if filmed and written correctly it could be extremely dark and fuckin' creepy.


P.S.

I wanna see Crazy Quilt.

[dwchang]

I'm pretty sure with some modification many of these bad guys could be made more dark.

The riddler especially. More Crazy mad man setting up traps and blowing people up (perhaps some games resulting in death. Kinda like the saw [like the boat thing the joker came up with]) instead of mind control and Riddle me this
batman.

Any Character can be made dark, I mean look at scarface. On the surface he's really campy ... lol ventriloquist talking though scarface puppet, but he has a somewhat similar story to Batman in that his psychosis took off when his parents were murdered in front of him. They both have like a dissociative disorder as a result of it.

Although I agree with you that any character can be *made* dark, for fans (like me...i.e. nerds), they'd be fairly upset if you don't stay 'true' to a character. I'm not extreme or hardcore that I want things to be ABSOLUTELY ACCURATE and thus hate EVERY comic movie...no I enjoy them quite a bit. However, I do like things to stay 'true to the original' in both feel and character. Making something what it's not would definitely upset me.

With that said, although I know the Ventriloquist is actually quite morbid, I don't think it's exactly a 'win' for the common case fan and regular movie-going audience. They wanna see something they know and they wanna see something cool. Not just some dude with a puppet .

At the same time, as I've illustrated, all the 'known' villains would be hard to integrate within the realm Nolan has already made. That's why I really hope...

Spoiler :

Harvey isn't dead. It would fix a lot of this.

[Fall_Child42]

Spoiler :

I imagine it's the joker that was not supposed to be dead.

;_;

[The Origonal Head Hunter]

The riddler especially. More Crazy mad man setting up traps and blowing people up (perhaps some games resulting in death. Kinda like the saw [like the boat thing the joker came up with]) instead of mind control and Riddle me this batman.

That would be the basic problem with doing the riddler as the next villian, since Joker already did most of what the riddler would have done (i.e. puzzles, 'guess who dies next', clues to where he'll be, what he'll do), he'd just seem like a cheap Joker knock-off to the casual movie-goer.

[NS]

When I was a kid, Penguin creeped me out...so I don't think he's to campy. The riddler could be VERY freaky to. He just has to be way more violent in his crimes and whatnot.

[Yok/0]

Mad Hatter any chance?

Spoiler :

come on, the guy is a pedo who captures little girls named Alice..

Though you would think that Christopher Nolan only wants to focus on the early Villains that were made from 1940-1942 limit.

[inthesto]

Spoiler :

Well keep in mind, I am a big comic book fan and Two-Face/Harvey is my favorite Bat-villain and thus I am a bit biased :P. At the same time, I totally agree and my only (minor) complaint was how they handled Harvey. They got some of it right, but a lot of it they just glanced over. The reason Harvey is interesting is b/c he's *conflicted*. He's not just out for revenge or believes purely in luck. Half of his is legitimately good and still believes in 'the good fight' and thus the coin (to make decisions). I wish they would've had Aaron Eckhart talk to himself or argue with two separate voices. That'd be more accurate imo since I thought they made him a little too one-sided.

...and yes, I hope he's alive for a sequel.

Spoiler :

While I'm not much of a comic fan, I do have to say I really like the character of Two-Face too. Usually the characters who do a Face Heel Turn are the ones that interest me the most. While I agree that they skipped out on the whole sense of internal conflict inside of Dent, they did push from a different angle that relates to the theme of the movie better. The point was supposed to be that the difference between a hero and a villain is very minor, and all Dent needed was one wrong step to become the bad guy.

And I'm absolutely convinced that he's coming back for a sequel. Too much exposition to be cut short like that, and I swear I saw him still breathing after the fall.