Christopher Nolan on Batman 3

There have been hordes of rumors about where the Batman franchise will go after The Dark Knight - Johnny Depp as the Riddler, Cher as Catwoman, etc. Writer David Goyer recently debunked all of that (although if you’re coming out and calling something bunk, why is that DEbunking? Shoudn’t it be ‘bunking? Or are the rumormongers the ones doing the bunking by spreading bunk in the first pace?), and director Christopher Nolan has finally spoken about the phenomenon he guided. In addition to reaffirming the fact that he only thinks about one movie at a time without regard to sequel fodder, he had this to say about the possibility of NOT returning for a third go-around.

There are two things to be said. One is the emphasis on story. What’s the story? Is there a story that’s going to keep me emotionally invested for the couple of years that it will take to make another one? That’s the overriding question. On a more superficial level, I have to ask the question: How many good third movies in a franchise can people name? At the same time, in taking on the second one, we had the challenge of trying to make a great second movie, and there haven’t been too many of those either. It’s all about the story really. If the story is there, everything is possible.

So one might bet that Nolan will not see a way to adequately follow up the insane success featuring Batman’s greatest villain, The Joker, and leave it to some other poor bastard to try and pick up the baton. At the same time, he might want to take the chance to answer some of the critics of the current saga’s lack of strong, full female characters by going the Catwoman/Poison Ivy route. We’ll all continue to bait our breath until we get an answer.