In the recent Empire magazine with Inception on the cover, Christopher Nolan talked about the upcoming Batman threequel. He also mentioned who we would definitely not be seeing. This one should have been obvious to most people, but I feel like the validation will make a lot of people happy: the Joker will not be present at all in the new Batman film. This is great, because Nolan even admits that he is uncomfortable with the idea of recasting Heath, and I can only imagine the fan uproar. Not only that, but Nolan confirmed that the Penguin and Mr. Freeze would not be in the film.
He also briefly discussed the plot of the film – or rather, the plotting of the film:
We came up with a story that we are very excited about. We particularly like where we are taking the characters and what the ending is. There are things for me to be very exited about in addressing the characters again, but ultimately it always comes down to the script, and can we make a great film from this? Thats something I will firmly be turning my attention to figuring out fairly soon. [This film will be] the ending of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story.
Not only that, but since Nolan is also mentoring the Superman film, he briefly discussed the idea of a possible crossover a la Marvel’s Avengers movies:
Marvel are doing what they are doing and people will either respond to that really well or they won’t. Its not something I ever applied a blanket rule to, but Marvel characters are very different to DC characters….You’ve got to go back to that element of “What do I see when I close my eyes and think of Batman/Superman?” And for me a big part of that is their individuality. They are extraordinary beings in an ordinary world….they are two very different characters but theres an elemental feeling of power in the iconography of those characters. To me thats originally because they stood alone, I need to hang onto that in my imagining of them.
So the long and short of it is: be happy that the Joker is gone, be anxious to see what they do with the third film, and be sad that you probably won’t see a Superman/Batman movie. That’s ok, though. You can always buy comics.
(source)
