Jonathan Nolan, who worked on The Dark Knight trilogy ender The Dark Knight Rises along with his brother, director Christopher Nolan, reveals which DC villain from Batman’s rogues gallery was almost part of the franchise. Since The Dark Knight Rises, Christian Bale’s Batman has continued to be one of the most beloved versions of the iconic DC hero. Throughout his time as the Caped Crusader in The Dark Knight trilogy, Bale’s Batman took on villains adapted from DC Comics, like Ra’s al Ghul, Joker, Scarecrow and Bane.
However, it appears that The Dark Knight trilogy almost featured another famous enemy from Batman’s mythology. During a recent appearance on Happy, Sad, Confused, Nolan shared that The Riddler was almost included in the fiinal movie of the trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. But in the end, they opted not to use Edward Nygma, sharing the following reason:
Topping Heath Ledger’s Joker was always going to be an impossible challenge given how high the late actor set the bar in 2008’s The Dark Knight. However, The Dark Knight Rises’ decision to end the trilogy with Tom Hardy’s Bane was still a solid choice as he made for a formidable antagonist against Bale’s Batman. With Bane being one of the few characters in the comics to have literally broken Batman physically, seeing him enter the final chapter of the Nolan trilogy allowed Bruce Wayne to push himself more than ever.
Bane isn’t just a phenomenal physical villain, but a dangerous mastermind, which allowed Bruce to get a different type of opponent after the events of The Dark Knight. Joker represented chaos, while Bane served as someone who nearly was a match against Bruce in The Dark Knight Rises. With Bruce having retired as Batman for eight years, it was compelling to see him having to get back out there against someone as powerful as Bane.
Depending on who they would have cast, The Dark Knight Rises having The Riddler as the final villain could have gone one way or the other. As interesting as it would have been to see the Nolan iteration of The Riddler, the world of cinema did end up getting a fascinating take on the character in 2022’s The Batman, with Paul Dano taking on the role. While the audience may never get to see what Nolan’s version of The Riddler could have been, the world can relive The Dark Knight Rises and the rest of the trilogy.
While The Dark Knight Rises was close to adding The Riddler, it is the casting choice that is one of the more interesting aspects. According to David S. Goyer, who worked on all three of Nolan’s Batman movies, the executives at Warner Bros. at the time wanted to court Leonardo DiCaprio to play The Riddler. This would have marked DiCaprio’s second collaboration with Nolan, as he had just worked with the filmmaker on Inception, which also featured Hardy and fellow The Dark Knight Rises co-stars Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
As much as Warner Bros. wanted Nolan to add DiCaprio as The Riddler, the director ultimately went with Bane as the primary antagonist for The Dark Knight Rises. The reason Nolan did not use The Riddler was the advantage of having a physically challenging opponent for Batman in his trilogy finale. Given the iconic history between Bane and Batman in DC lore, particularly the Knightfall saga, Hardy’s character made for a more memorable antagonist than DiCpario’s hypothetical Riddler.
Even though DiCaprio is an incredibly talented actor, the idea of him as The Riddler in Nolan’s Batman universe could have been a major risk for The Dark Knight Rises. Depending on the characterization, it could have gone in the wrong direction, or DiCaprio’s Riddler could have been a potential standout in Nolan’s DC franchise. In the end, it is for the best that Bane was picked as the final enemy against the Caped Crusader in The Dark Knight Rises.
Source: Happy, Sad, Confused/YouTube