Jonathan Nolan revealed that he wasn’t initially completely sold on the idea of Bane being the villain in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises.

The writer-producer, who co-wrote 2008’s The Dark Knight and Rises with David S. Goyer and his brother and director Christopher Nolan, said on a recent episode on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he was actually pushing for the Riddler to be the primary villain in the third film of the trilogy.

“We had these conversations,” Jonathan said. “Bane came out of a conversation with David [Goyer] and Chris. I was unsure about that at the story stage, but I [didn’t want it to be] back seat driving. Chris understood that what we had done and what Heath [Ledger] had done with [Joker] — you didn’t want to go anywhere near it.”

He continued, “I started to play with the idea of the Riddler and what could be done with that character. But it did feel like close enough to the space of what we had done with Heath, and you really needed to [change direction]. There’s another genre shift there. One of the things I was excited about for The Dark Knight Rises was that if you do a kind of urban crime genre for [The Dark Knight], the third one was a post-apocalyptic film. You sort of go: Batman always saves the day and the city survives. Why can’t we destroy Gotham and see what happens afterwards?”

The Fallout director wasn’t the only one initially pushing for the Riddler in Nolan’s third Batman movie. In September last year, Goyer said an executive from Warner Bros. suggested to him at the premiere of The Dark Knight that Leonardo DiCaprio should play the Riddler in the next film.

he can infodump so deep inside me I'll have trivia running down my leg

FLORENCE PUGH via Instagram on March 10, 2023

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 02.07.2024 "Christopher Nolan"

Cillian Murphy Accepts the award for Best Actor | 96th Annual Academy Awards (2024)

they’re FINALLY Oscar winning besties 🥹 could not be more deserved

they say: "eat the rich" i say licking my lips: "yes, most definitely i'd"

☘️

Best Director and Best Picture Academy Award winner, Christopher Nolan.

CILLIAN MURPHY

attends the 96th Annual Oscars in Los Angeles, California - March 10, 2024

actually ME right now

Al Pacino after presenting Best Picture to Christopher Nolan 23 years later after working with Christopher in Inmsonia (2002)

96th Oscars Winners Portraits for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score Photographed by Matt Sayles

I think Cillian got a liddel bit drunk last night and started kissing other men?!🤣