Nolan’s Riddler Rejection Avoided A Problem That Killed 2 Superhero Franchises

By rejecting The Riddler in The Dark Knight Rises, director Christopher Nolan avoided a major issue that ended two superhero movie franchises, both in the wider DC Universe and Marvel Universe. Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy stands as one of the best superhero movie series of all time. Christian Bale was perfect — raspy Batman voice aside — as both the playboy side of Bruce Wayne and his stoic superhero alter ego, Batman, across all three movies. That said, it was Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight that elevated the franchise’s status as one of the best ever.

As Ledger passed away, bringing back the Joker for The Dark Knight Rises was impossible. The villain for Bale’s final adventure as the Dark Knight ended up being Tom Hardy’s Bane, who presented both a psychological and physical threat for Batman. However, if Warner Bros. executives had had their way, The Dark Knight Rises would have been a very different movie, as the studio wanted the Riddler to serve as the film’s main villain. Nolan ended up refusing to use the Riddler and the big name actor Warner wanted for the role, and that decision helped The Dark Knight Rises get good reviews and avoid a major superhero movie mistake.

Why Christopher Nolan Rejected Leo DiCaprio’s Riddler For The Dark Knight Rises

Speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, The Dark Knight trilogy writer David S. Goyer revealed that the studio wanted Nolan to cast Leonardo DiCaprio as The Riddler in The Dark Knight Rises.

Goyer explains that he was asked about that casting by a studio executive right at The Dark Knight‘s premiere; however, that was not how Goyer and Nolan broke the stories for their Batman movies. The duo would first settle down on what themes they wanted to approach and then choose a villain to serve that story, not pick a villain like DiCaprio as Riddler and build from that. Check out the full quote below:

“When superhero movies started getting made, and you had sequels, the studio would say, ‘Who’s our villain for the next movie going to be?’ And let’s build a movie around that. And Chris was staunchly against that because that is not a bottom, ground-up way of telling a story. Let’s do it in a very naturalistic way, so let’s figure out what kind of story we want to tell and what we thematically want to explore with Bruce and then let’s figure out a villain that fits that story.

We had all these pitches. I remember at The Dark Knight [premiere], the head of Warner Bros. said, ‘You gotta do the Riddler. Leo [DiCaprio] as the Riddler.’ That’s not the way we work – not to take anything away from him.”

The Dark Knight Rises Avoided Raimi & Schumacher’s Big Villain Mistakes

Nolan was right in not using DiCaprio as the Riddler in The Dark Knight Rises. While it would certainly have been interesting to see what DiCaprio could do with Edward Nygma opposite Bale’s Batman, as the Titanic actor is a great fit for the villain, it would ultimately not have matched the direction that The Dark Knight Rises was going for. Batman could only have been broken physically by a villain such as Bane, and had the studio forced the Riddler to be the main foe of the film, Nolan’s vision for The Dark Knight Rises would have been heavily messed with.

Superhero movies have historically faced the kind of issue that The Dark Knight Rises dealt with villain wise. Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy director Sam Raimi notably did not want to include Venom in Spider-Man 3, and reportedly only did so because the studio pushed for it. That resulted in Spider-Man 3 being the weakest of Raimi’s Spider-Man movies. Likewise, Batman & Robin director Joel Schumacher had to use multiple villains in the movie due to studio requests. In the end, both films became villain showcases, with their stories merely serving to explain why the villains were there. Thankfully, Nolan avoided that by refusing to add the Riddler to The Dark Knight Rises, retaining full creative control.