I really love TAS Mr. Freeze, but I don't see it working in the Nolan universe yet. Not with Bats on the run. Maybe in the 4th film, once Bats is back on the side of angels.

That said, they could involve Mr. Freeze is the next film, almost like Scarecrow in TDK, except towards the end of the film, not the beginning. The Riddler, captured and in Arkham, could point out that Batman hasn't solved all the clues he sent out.

Batman (deep gravelly voice): Tell me what I missed

Riddler (walking away from the door, condescendingly): When you figure it out, it'll chill your bones.

You have Batman on the run from the cops, the Riddler committing crimes (at the behest of the Joker?) and both Batman and the cops trying to stop him. Hints of Mr. Freeze in the 4th film. But you don't need a second villain. You don't need Robin. Batman vs Gordon vs Riddler. Ta da.

Can The Joker return? Of course. But it would be a new story. And if he didn't return, well, that's ok too. Like I said: Gotham beat the Joker. That story is over.

For that I predict The Penguin. Not Tim Burton's perverse fish-eating, black-bile spewing Penguin, but like he has been done recently in the comics - an arms dealer who sells to feuding street gangs, letting them kill each other off, then buys whoever's left and takes over.

The Penguin as an arms dealer making things difficult for Batman by keeping what's left of the mafia armed to the teeth as they regroup. - Phillip Seymore Hoffman or Paul Giamatti fit.

Joker is done. No Ledger, no Joker. Don't ruin what they put up in TDK with Ledger. Leave it as it is and move on.

"You've changed things."

(I kid, I know what you meant)

Tell that to James Cameron. There was lots of idle talk for how to make another Titanic film, all oof which sounded rubbish, and all of which came to precisely nothing. That said, I've no doubt there'll be another Batman film, the question is whether Nolan comes back. I hope he does.

I do think that a Mr. Freeze story could be made in such a way to fit into the world of these films. Just turn down the sci-fi angle and make his suit and equipment look more like something that could be made with current technology. The dark Animated Series Freeze is the starting point. And yes, Freeze's loss of humanity can be played in a way that has Bruce fearing he's losing his humanity, as well. Also, I even think Robin could be done right.

And finally, "The Dark Knight Returns" should never be made into a movie. I've always seen that story as a kind of alternate reality future Batman. Leave it where it is, in comics. I think WB wouldn't want to do a non-mainstream Batman movie, anyway. Besides, how much darker can things get than this past flick?

The Joker's story is done, the only thing left would be his trial, but you lose out on having Two-face show up during it, and you couldn't wrap an entire movie around the trial, it would need to be in the background of a larger more important story. Catwoman is a little silly in Nolan's world. The only bigger thing in Batman's life is Robin, but I can't see them going in that direction.

Although, if you lifted a few ideas here and there, the Dark Victory beginning, maybe even a little from ASB&R, with Robin almost killing someone (not GL, obviously). It wouldn't be terrible, but it just couldn't top TDK.

No-one is bigger than the franchise and Nolan will be recasting. There's too much money floating around not to. Watch this space, homies...

Was in the '90's. Is still now.

The last 30 minutes of the film could have easily been expanded to do a third chapter, instead of akwardly crammed into a bloated finale.

Len's movies have no emotional effect on me whatsoever. He is incapable of making me laugh or cry. Watching a Len Wiseman movie feels like watching someone hose out the inside of a dirty ice chest for 2 hours.

Here's my thoughts that no one will read:

Batman is constantly hunted by the police, so Harvey Dent's martyrdom won't be in vain. Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot would be the villain, an obese or overweight but always impeccably well dressed and manicured wealthy inheritor of an arms dealing company who is fighting his own war on Gotham's terror but ultimately funding and supplying the criminals with lethal weapons. A headline could read "From Eagle of Freedom to Penguin of Crime."

Batman is forced to escalate his methods but the people that embrace him as a hero begin to mimic him, but they use Cobblepot's readily available weapons. And people die dressed as Batman and kill dressed as Batman (this ties in to the foreshadowing of the vigilante gang in THE DARK KNIGHT) There is some crazy media seeker Batman want-to-be vigilante who calls himself Man-Bat.

Bruce Wayne must consider what he has created. Batman and Gordon are at a loss, innocent people are dying.

BATMAN: There needs to a light to shine on the good people of Gotham.

GORDON: The problem with light is the shadows. Too many Batmen in the shadows these days. Even my daughter runs around the house with a cape and mask.

BATMAN: Shadows...

GORDON: Many of these shadows are trying to do the right thing, like you. But there's too much disorder. It's too easy to get guns and weapons. These Batmen are in league with the wrong shadows.

BATMAN: The League of Shadows...escalation.

I warned you about escalation, but you did the right thing. If we could escalate less death, escalate less crime, but the people in shadows...

BATMAN: Most people are good. They have Dent to thank for that.

GORDON: They have you to thank for that.

BATMAN:Dent must always be the Gotham's White Knight, the shining example of what is good.

GORDON:What about the darkness? What about the downtrodden? What about those in league with the shadows?

BATMAN: You warned me of it. Escalation. The League of Shadows need a new leader. The Dark Knight.

GORDON:This is going to get worse before it gets better.

Basically Bruce Wayne allows a massive amount of Wayne Enterprises non-lethal weapons into the hands of the Batman impersonators, cheaper and faster and ultimately forces Cobblepot out of the market. The violence escalates. Batman becomes the DARK KNIGHT, leader of the League of Shadows. It gets worse before it gets better. Bruce Wayne can take no more. Batman can take to more. Too many people are still getting hurt.

Unless Batman dies... by doing the right thing and the League will follow.

Ultimately Batman is killed. He is a martyr. He is THE DARK KNIGHT. The city mourns. The League of Shadows heals the city, citizens doing the right thing for others. Cobblepot mysteriously disappears. Lucious Fox uses a device that makes the non-lethal weapons deactivate.

Gordon looks down on the shining city from atop the roof of the police headquarters.

GORDON: Things are looking good, things are getting better.

A businessman stands behind him.

GORDON: But it got worse before it got better. (He looks at the man behind him) But it's better.

The businessman begins to walk away.

GORDON: But there's still some shadows...

The businessman step into the light, it's Bruce Wayne, the audience gasps because he's supposed to be dead!

WAYNE: There's always shadows, just a lot less of them these days. Batman is dead. DNA analysis proved that Cobblepot was Batman.

GORDON: My little girl still runs around the house in a cape and mask. What happens when she gets older? What happens if the light dims?

Bruce Wayne steps back into the shadows.

WAYNE: Then THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.

Fade to black and run credits.

And fuck Chris Tucker and his stupid shrill voice up Jackie Chan's ass.

B. No Mr. Freeze. Talk about cartoony. You might as well have Clock King show up.

Third- As much as I hate to say it, don't do Harley. Harley works as a second banana to the Joker, and since I doubt we're getting more Joker for the next one, the inclusion of Harley would be forced and kind of ridiculous in Nolan's Bat-verse.

IV- I think the only real way to top the high water mark of TDK is to do The Man of Steel vs. The Dark Knight. There's a bit of a set up in the idea of Batman as a dangerous outlaw from the end of TDK, and there's no better way to show that Batman is just a mortal man than to put him up against the big blue boy scout. Bats had his will tested in the first movie, his ideology tested by the Joker and Two Face in the second... the only way I can see them top that is by testing his resilience by putting him up against a status-quo enforcing god from space... and Batman still triumphs. As Frank Miller said in some interview, Batman is a guy who believes the natural state of things is entropy, that the world only makes sense when you force it to... and Superman believes that the world's natural state is in balance and therefore he only seeks to enforce the status quo... these two people would not get along. I think that's the kind of real-world dichotomy that Nolan is good at exploring.

5th- I forget what my next point was so let me just reiterate: No Bane, no Maxie Zeus, no Harley, no Clock King, none of this fanboy-service crap that keeps getting tossed around in here. The biggest suspense of disbelief in these movies should be the guy in the Bat costume not getting killed.

I do agree with you that it's kind of early to involve Superman and take the whole thing towards Dark Knight Returns, but the reality is that A) WB just made a mint on a "dark" superhero film, so you KNOW that "dark" is the new studio hack blueprint for superheroes for the foreseeable future (remember that note from the WB about their new "dark" direction for all upcoming superhero movies?), and B) "Batman as rogue/troublemaker" would be the only way I can think of to one-up the intensity of the last flick. So if that's the route they're already decided upon, might as well go whole hog and reboot Superman via their existing tentpole superhero, Batman. I'm not suggesting a slavish, Zack Snyder adaptation of DKR, but with all the speculation about what villains could potentially turn up next time, IMO, the really interesting choice would be to take the ultimate good guy and cast him as the unwitting antagonist. To me, that allows much more room to play around with the contrast between these two characters, which is the most interesting thing in these movies, rather than another average 3rd act slugfest between cardboard cutouts (I'm looking at you, Iron Man) that reveals nothing about the characters. We've seen enough navel gazing, I want to see Batman have some fun being the cranky old fascist bastard he truly is at heart, and there's no better foil for the complexity of that character than good ol cornfed Clark.

The Riddler

Why oh why would anyone want such a boring Batman film? Batman is not boring. Batman fights crime in a daffy costume and occasionally grimaces. He is exciting and kicks much ass. He does not have the fighting skill of a pedestrian stuntman in a so-so episode of the A-Team, as Nolan would have you believe. Also, there is no evidence to suggest (as far as I can tell from the comics I have read) that he speaks like a ten year old child trying to frighten his younger sister.

No. Batman should be fun to watch, not dreary and ass-deadening.

I demand they bring back Joel Schumacher to save what's left of this series of films. I also demand that the next villains be The Mad Hatter and Killer Croc. And get fucking Robin in it! Batman is lonely without Robin.

And he will do that by making it more gay. Gay is not serious. Gay is not dour. Gay is the way for Batman, and you know it will also allow for Robin to make his way into the story.

P.S. Didn't that guy from James already play Mr Zsasz?

And that is a shame. A crying shame.

Also, how come Batman does not use ropes to walk up the sides of buildings anymore?

I looked and looked, but I could hardly see any mustache at all. Not even a little stubble or some kind of bum fluff deal.

Why does everyone want an adaptation of Batman that appears to be ashamed of its source material? Batman & Robin may have been unutterable shit, but at least it had good self-esteem. These new Batman films stare longingly at Heat and then play about with their hair to try to make themselves look more like Al Pacino.

That's just fucking embarrassing.

Appearance true to the comic counterpart isn't paramount in terms of importance. This iteration of the Joker was not a literal translation from the comic.

I'm with you in terms of Ledger's somewhat humble acting beginnings not tipping his hand to reveal his talent, but have some faith in great actors (such as Hall) to use their immense talents in roles like this and NOT be typecast.

If they decide to use The Riddler as the villain in the next film, there are many more choices that I think would fit better than Johnny Depp. The sad thing is that no one is really coming to mind right now.

I don't know, it just seems like everyone wants to use Johnny Depp in every movie possible these days, there is just a lot more talent in Hollywood that would be much more inspired casting than just using Johnny Depp because it's Johnny Depp.

On another note, Paul Giammatti or Phillip Seymour Hoffman would be really great casting for The Penguin.

And I'm not really sure how they would be able to follow up The Dark Knight with having Catwoman as the villain, I just don't think there is enough there to develop a dark and gritty and compelling story like Begins of TDK with her as the villain. And get someone else than Angelina Jolie to play her, yea she's hot and it would be awesome to see her in the Catwoman costume, but I don't think she'd bring it the way Bale and Ledger and everyone else has in the last 2 movies. It seems more like she would do the movie simply because it would look great on her resume and she can say she was part of something the Ledger helped create. Again, there are much more talent in Hollywood that would be just as inspired casting as Angelina Jolie.