After the astounding box office success of “The Dark Knight,” there is no wonder that rumors are already flying about the next installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman series. So what exactly does he have in store?

First of all, Two-Face is dead. I know, I know, it’s sad and there could have been a chance that he would return, but no. It was officially confirmed by Aaron Eckhart himself in an interview with Ain’t It Cool News.

So Harvey Dent’s re-emergence is obviously out of the question. However, rumors have been circulating that the next film will feature Johnny Depp as the Riddler and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the Penguin. Already Hoffman has denied these rumors, saying he doesn’t even think he would make a good Penguin, but still no word from Depp. When questioned about playing the role, he has said, “Oh yeah I heard about that. It seems like it’d be a fun gig for a while, yeah.”

No one knows yet who will be cast in other roles, or what other characters will make an appearance, but we do know that Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman are back on for the third film.

Personally I would love to see some of the lovely femme-fatale villains such as Poison Ivy or Catwoman make an appearance again (Fans are talking Angelina, but come on, isn’t there anyone else??). Then again, in the Nolan films, the director seems to be all about doing things right. So at least this time maybe Catwoman will be the seductive thief we read about in comics instead of a lunatic who is resurrected by a bunch of magical feral cats.

Hopefully more beans will be spilled soon as to what Nolan has in store for his next film, but whatever he has in mind will surely be worth the wait.

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