Hollywood Life is claiming that a source close to Director Christopher Nolan has supposedly stated that Nolan is very interested in having Joseph Gordon-Levitt don the infamous question mark and take on the role of The Riddler as the villain in the third Batman film. Gordon-Levitt of course co-stars in Nolan’s upcoming film, Inception, due out this Summer. Here’s what Hollywood Life had to say on the matter:
“Chris really dug Joseph [as an actor],” a source close to the director tells HollywoodLife.com exclusively. “There was a joke at first between them [on the set of Inception] that Joseph wanted to read for Batman 3 and things heated up as filming continued.”
Adds the insider, “It’s not 100% confirmed that he’s getting [the role of The Riddler] but there’s certainly talk about it. Joseph is definitely on the short list.” This should make fans happy, especially as several fan sites have expressed a wish to see the 500 Days of Summer cutie score the role!
Before I continue, I would take this with a grain of salt. JGL’s name is the latest in a long line of many actors associated to being the next Batman villain, The Riddler or otherwise. I like this casting idea, and if this is being considered then you can consider me painted “cautiously excited”.
Now, Christopher Nolan recently confirmed to Empire Magazine that he will absolutely not be recasting the Joker and bringing him back as the villain in the third film, so we have seen the last of the Joker in this Batman universe. I really think that the Riddler is the next best, and logical villain for the film franchise – this is something that Kill-Tacular-Tron, Mexicus Prime and I have talked about in length before. Many people have the argument that the Riddler is too similar to the Joker, but hear me out. The fact that the Riddler is like the Joker is a plus; Imagine a tech-savvy younger guy (Gordon-Levitt’s age) who is essentially a Joker copy-cat, but ups the game and has his own riddle-based take on the fucked-up games the Joker was playing with Batman putting people’s lives on the line. I really think it could work and I would be excited to see the version of the Riddler Nolan will come up with.