The Villains In "Dark Knight Rises" Revealed

Christopher Nolan's third, and final, Batman movie has been shrouded in mystery.  We've known for awhile that Tom Hardy had been cast as a villain, but there was no announcement as to which character he would be playing.  Until now.

Bane, sort of an evil version of Doc Savage, with the fashion sense of El Santo, will be played by the Inception veteran.  Given the over-the-top nature of the character, it's likely that his interpretation in Nolan's more "grim 'n' gritty" universe will be barely recognizable.  The villain has previously appeared in the infamous film Batman & Robin, as kind of a near-mindless henchman to Arnold's Mr. Freeze, but the original comic character is a deadly mixture of brawn and brains; in his very first story arc, he figured out Batman's secret identity, temporarily broke his spine (!!!), and single-handedly took over the Gotham underworld.  The source of his incredible physical strength, and his greatest weakness, is the drug known as "Venom", which acts as a sort of Super-Steroid, and is highly addictive.

Secondly, Anne Hathaway will be portraying Selina Kyle, who in the comics is the alter-ego of Catwoman. In the press release today, WB specifically said "Selina", and not "Catwoman", so I'm not exactly sure what to make of that.  Does she become Catwoman towards the end of the film, much like Harvey Dent's turn in The Dark Knight?  Maybe the sometimes villain, sometimes hero takes up Batman's cause when he "retires" (This being Nolan's last Batman, I'm imagining it will have some type of conclusion to his trilogy)?

I'm really pleased with the casting of Hardy as the main villain, and I think that Bane is a potentially great choice.  He's a character who's fairly unknown, and never been done well in movie form, so it'll give Hardy the chance to make the character his own.  He's also a good counterweight to the previous film's heavy, the Joker, since he's a relatively sane villain who's obsessed with power and money;  quite the opposite of the character that Heath Ledger posthumously won an Academy Award for.

But Catwoman?  Michelle Pfeiffer pretty much nailed it in Batman Returns, so Hathaway will have to bring a much different spin to the character.

Exciting stuff.  This one's still a year and a half away, so don't start getting too hyped yet, but Nolan seems to be getting better, and more confident, with each film he makes.  If this turns out even half as good as Inception, I think we're in for one of the best movies of 2012.