What If Two-Face & The Joker Returned For The Dark Knight Rises
If both the Joker and Two-Face had returned in The Dark Knight Rises, Batman could have faced a threat even greater than Bane. This was, of course, sadly made impossible by the tragic death of Heath Ledger in 2008 before The Dark Knight Rises' production. Yet had the Joker and Two-Face been included, the direction of Christopher Nolan's sequel toThe Dark Knight would have undoubtedly been different — as even with Bane as its primary antagonist, the director could have worked all three villains into The Dark Knight Rises without changing too much.
The Dark Knight Rises picked up eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, with organized crime largely eradicated due to Batman (Christian Bale) and Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) keeping Harvey Dent's (Aaron Eckhart) murders secret to avoid having his prosecutions as the District Attorney undone, instead blaming the crimes on Batman. Yet it is the mercenary, Bane (Tom Hardy), working with Talia al Ghul (Marion Cotillard) of the League of Shadows, who posthumously unmasks Dent as the real perpetrator by reading a testimonial from Gordon that revealed the truth as he sets the criminals of Gotham loose to unleash destruction onto the city.
Related: The Batman Will Regret Not Using Joaquin Phoenix's Joker
Developing a sequel to The Dark Knight was never appealing to Nolan. However, what little information is known about the early drafts of The Dark Knight Rises suggested that the Riddler was the third movie's villain, with the studio showing interest in casting Leonardo DiCaprio in the role before Nolan ultimately decided on Bane as his third major villain. As for the Joker, nothing was ever confirmed regarding the character's return, though Ledger's sister did confirm
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