Given how good this last Batman movie was, it seems likely that we will see a third Batman movie in this series. Of course, the big question in this would be whether Christian Bale and Chris Nolan would return to the series, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t considering both seem fine with doing other movies while doing Batman and neither has gotten really too huge because of it. Assuming they do stick around, and considering how popular they have been I don’t see why they wouldn’t, the next question is… who does the bat fight next time?
To answer this question we must first really figure out what Nolan has done in his first 2 films. Both films featured realistic villains with new super human powers. Even looking at Ra’s al Ghul in the first film who had the power to live forever through the Lazarus pits had this power, maybe not taken completely away but was completely ignored in the movie. This was a great move by the way because it really wasn’t all that important in terms of this movie anyway.
By trying to stay realistic we can take out many types of villains straight off the top. Killer Croc, Mudface, and Man-Bat which were all creatures more than anything and I just don’t think would fit at all with the tone of the Nolan movies. Mudface also has the other issue of being too similar to the horridly bad Spider-Man 3 villain Sandman.
Then we have tweeners, characters whom had super powers of some sort, but these powers might be worked around in some ways. In particular I can think of Bane and Poison Ivy. Bane could be worked around in that maybe he is just a serious steroid user and is an interesting character in that he crippled Bruce Wayne and forced him to retire from the Batman scene at one point and if incorporated into the movies could really bring a nice twist to the story. Poison Ivy could be brought in as someone who is going too far to protect wildlife, but doesn’t have the direct control over plants the way she does in the comics. Maybe she just uses them in ways to do harm to others, such as poisoning and what not.
But neither of those would be all that interesting. Other obvious choices include the villains that we’ve already seen including The Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, and Mr. Freeze. Although one of the writers has already insinuated that this next one may go for a villain that hasn’t been in the movies yet. I also think it might be too soon to do The Riddler though I would love to see it. The reason is because the difference between The Joker and The Riddler are minimal at best.
I have a feeling after this last movie though is that the next villain will be a return of the Catwoman. The reason I think this is that they got rid of Rachel which will mean he will need a new female counterpart in the next movie, and what better one could they get but the Catwoman whom he had a romantic relationship with as Bruce Wayne? She is also a super realistic character, containing no special powers herself or any sort of mysticism. Plus, while Pfiffer did a spectacular job on the role in Batman Returns, she could be easily outdone given the right casting and direction, which they obviously have in spades.
You could also get this same type of romance from the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul as well which would require that Liam Neesan reprise that role though and that may be a route that Nolan is unwilling to go. And in and of herself, she was nothing spectacular in reality, the interesting part of her was her father and that he approved of it and that she was the grey area between the two of them. Which I guess could be done without the father (and without the approval). I mean if Bruce Wayne fell in love with this woman and found out who she was, it certainly would create an inner conflict with him, especially if she wasn’t necessarily good or evil, and we could get an interesting story with it. Perhaps she could be coupled with another character that has been around such as the above Poison Ivy or Riddler to keep a stronger interest in the movie; after all she wasn’t really a villain.