The Dark Knight Rises How about a Batman movie without a big name villain?

[Chainsmoke]

I would someday like to see a Batman movie that doesn’t feature one of the many major Batman villains. I’m thinking something along the lines of Batman: The Cult or Night Cries. Comic book movies always have the hero fighting one of his main villains, and I think this would be an attempt to do something different and unique. And Batman’s the right character to pull it off. This could never have been done in the old series, but since Nolan has made Batman/Bruce Wayne the focus of this new series, I think it could work.

I want Chris Nolan and company to come back and do Batman 3, and they can go ahead and put in a major villain or two. But after that, I think it’d be cool if a new team came in and broke the mold of these movies by not using a villain. This could be done every few movies in. That would keep the series from getting stale and using a formula. What does everyone else here think about this? There are LOTS of great Batman stories out there where Batman isn’t just facing off against someone from his rogues gallery, and some of those stories could work very well on the big screen.

 

[Mastodon123]

David Goyer has been hinting that their going to use a lesser known villian in the 3rd film.
Theres alot of doubt that characters like Catwoman and Penguin will be in the 3rd film because of comments from Chris Nolan, Gary Oldman, and David Goyer.

 

[regwec]

It would be a massive anticlimax after TDK, lead to a high proportion of moderately negative reviews, and ensure a much smaller box office for the sequel.

I don't know why no one has thought of this before.

 

[ThePoisonPuppet]

Despite the fact you are right that there were some excellent stories without super villains, I don't think Warner Brothers would let even Nolan get away with something like this. Heck I doubt Steven Spielberg could even get a major studio to finance a superhero film without a major villain.

 

[raynorWilm]

Despite the fact you are right that there were some excellent stories without super villains, I don't think Warner Brothers would let even Nolan get away with something like this. Heck I doubt Steven Spielberg could even get a major studio to finance a superhero film without a major villain.

Agreed. When it boils down to it, WB is putting out a "summer blockbuster" so they need to have as many draws as they can, and a major villian is one of those.

 

[Shane Diesel]

You probably won't be able to sell it to the studio b/c its a summer tent pole film. Its similar to the PG13 issue. I personally think these Batman films should be R rated and the Joker's murders seem kinda lame after the tension and music builds it up. But WB would never allow an R rated Batman film b/c it would affect it commercially.

 

[Doc Samson]

I think Batman Begins might be the closest you get to this. Granted, in the comics the Scarecrow & Ras are pretty big, but to the general audience, most of them had no idea who they were, especially Ras I'm sure. One of Batman's greatest strengths is his gallery of crazy villains, they make him necessary and quite interesting IMO

 

[Hamill-Joker]

I think Goyer mentioned he didn't like using the villains that were in the 60s TV show, but The Joker was an exception.

So, that puts Riddler in doubt for me. But I still suspect it will be him.

The only two villains not from the original 60s show that I could see in the next movie are either Harley Quinn or Black Mask.