Home Entertainment Leonardo DiCaprio was going to be the Riddler in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES?

Leonardo DiCaprio was going to be the Riddler in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES?

2 min read
1

Well riddle me this and riddle me that, who was originally going to face the big bad Bat?

Well according to the latest Bat-centric issue of  popular magazine Empire, there was a chance that all those post-Dark Knight rumours about The Riddler actually had some merit to it, and that Warner Bros wanted a very popular actor to sport the green fedora and question mark pimp cane.

According to Empire, writer/director Christopher Nolan and co-writer David S. Goyer had already known back when The Dark Knight was just about to be released how they would end the 3rd and final act of their Batman epic. That ending apparently hasn’t changed at all since then.

“Goyer explained that the ending inThe Dark Knight Rises is exactly what they talked about 4 years ago — it’s completely unchanged. When Goyer saw that final scene from The Dark Knight Rises, he got a lump in his throat.”

What did change though was the villain that would be putting the Caped Crusader and his beloved Gotham City through it’s paces. Though Tom Hardy’s Bane currently has that destructive honour, Warner Bros execs originally wanted Leonardo DiCaprio as the Riddler to be main villain.

“Goyer said that at the premiere of The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. executives were already talking about a villain for The Dark Knight Rises — ‘it’s gonna be The Riddler, and we want it to be Leonardo DiCaprio…’”

At the time many people were calling for the Riddler as the next Bat-adversary, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt under the hat, as his cerebral modus operandi would have made a good fit for Nolan’s more grounded comic book universe. (Well, that’s if you forget the absolute travesty of Jim Carrey’s clearly on several mood altering pharmaceutical performance in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever.) Di Caprio didn’t get the nod, the reason for which is not given, but JGL is showing up in the film now as… well, they claim he’s just a normal police officer, but I ain’t drinkin’ your cool-aid, Nolan.

The issue also clarified that technically Catwoman is not in this film.

“Christopher Nolan confirmed that Anne Hathaway’s character, Selina Kyle, is never referred to as “Catwoman” in the script.”

The issue should be out on newsstands now, and features a massive pull-out poster with Batman on the one side and Catwoman Selina Kyle on the other.

(Via Collider)

Last Updated: June 4, 2012

One Comment

  1. Theunis Jansen Van Rensburg

    June 4, 2012 at 14:55

    Wow, I hadn’t heard that before! I am a huge fan of DiCaprio’s, I think it could have really worked. We still think that it will be an epic conclusion, though!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Best comic book covers of the week – 7 June 2021

From the streets of Gotham to the far reaches of the Multiverse, these are the best comic …