Bane and Catwoman cast in Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight Rises'

*Originally published on 2/3/11



This isn't exactly news at this point, but being an ardent comic fan and movie geek, I feel behooved to comment upon it. It was announced some time ago that the villains for The Dark Knight Rises, the sequel to the box office smash, The Dark Knight, will be Catwoman and Bane, played by Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy respectively.

Hearing that those two will be the villains in the final entry of Nolan's series still makes me tilt my head in confusion. When I told my roommate about it, he had the same reaction I did.

Now, to be fair, I was skeptical about elements during production of both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Both times, I was proven quite wrong so I feel like Nolan has earned the benefit of the doubt. That being said, Catwoman and Bane? Really?

I guess Catwoman makes sense. I mean, there does need to be a love interest (I still say it should've been Talia, but Hollywood doesn't listen to me). She should also prove to be a far more interesting and developed character than Rachel, so there is some benefit to that.

In regards to Bane, I haven't actually read Knightfall, but everyone makes him out to be some crafty genius. I guess Nolan wants to go that route and hopefully redeem the character after his portrayal in Batman and Robin. I wouldn't be surprised if he used that story arc the same way he used Year One and The Long Halloween as inspiration for the two previous films.

At first glance, Bane doesn't seem to fall into the ultra-realistic world that Nolan created. However, I always figured if Bane were to be brought in that you lessen the effects of the drug called Venom and basically turn it into a potent steroid.

I was getting kind of excited when the rumors of Dr. Hugo Strange (not to be confused with Marvel's Dr. Strange) being the villain started to spread. I had been aware of the character, but didn't think much of him until a friend of mine started doing a series of blog entries on his stories (despite, ironically, being a Two-Face centric blog). Reading up on him really sold the idea to me. Hugo, as my friend pointed out, used fear gas before Scarecrow was invented, manipulated his knowledge of Bruce's identity in ways Ra's al Ghul never did, did to Batman what Kraven did to Spider-Man in Kraven's Last Hunt before that Spider-Man story was published, tore Bruce down the same way the Kingpin did in Daredevil Born Again (once again in a story that was published first), attacked Batman the same way Hush and Dr. Hurt did; only Hugo did it better, and he was Batman's first official nemesis, even before the Joker.

If any villain had a chance of being a worthy follow up to the clown prince of crime, this guy was it. I also liked the idea because the Bat-films still haven't showcased Hugo. One of the things I really liked about Batman Begins was that it used villains who hadn't been used in film before. A part of me was hoping that this film would do the same. That does not seem to be the case.

A part of me was also kind of hoping that Two-Face would return, but Nolan has confirmed that Harvey's dead and that his story is over.

I know, I said before that the focus shouldn't be on trying to top the previous film and just telling a good Batman story. That is still the case. I know Nolan was hesitant about a third film because that's usually where things seem to go awry (I liked Return of the Jedi, but whatever). I'm sure he has something in mind, and I'll be there to see what it was when the film does come out.