The consensus among Batman fans appears to be that Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is a flawed masterpiece. As solid as it was, The Dark Knight Rises couldn’t live up to the heights of The Dark Knight. It’s not even Nolan’s fault, though: The Dark Knight is the kind of film that comes once in a generation. Of course, no one can discuss the Dark Knight trilogy without mentioning Heath Ledger’s generational performance as the Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight. Ledger changed the character for good, infusing it with a uniquely malicious, chaotic aura that still defines the Clown Prince of Crime in many of his comic book appearances. It’s no surprise to hear that Nolan and the rest of the team, including screenwriter David Goyer, wanted much more Joker in The Dark Knight Rises’ original draft.
Goyer, who penned most of the Dark Knight trilogy alongside Nolan, has divulged the plans the studio had for Batman’s character development over the years. Something that shocked many fans watching The Dark Knight is how unexpected Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face feels. The movie is already incredible with just the Joker; adding yet another legendary Batman adversary just felt like overkill at that point.
However, according to Goyer, the original plan for the trilogy would see Two-Face as one of the villains in the third film, leaving only the Joker to wreak havoc in The Dark Knight. Granted, this was early into pre-production, so long before principal photography for The Dark Knight took place.
The version of The Dark Knight Rises we never got would have seen the Joker slowly corrupting Dent after the clown goes on trial for his actions in The Dark Knight. Of course, hindsight is 20/20: now, we know that a movie where the Joker goes to trial for the entire runtime might not be the best call.
A common complaint among Batman fans regarding Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is that the movies don’t feel like the comic books. Nolan went for a realistic take on the Caped Crusader, one that sees him enacting his brand of vigilante justice with a distinctly militaristic tone, fueled by the fears of a post-9/11 America.
Considering the overall tone of the franchise, The Dark Knight Rises, where Batman faces off against a villain with seemingly Middle-Eastern origins (as much as I would have loved to see Nolan’s take on Santa Prisca), makes perfect sense within the confines of Nolan’s narrative. As divisive as The Dark Knight Rises might have been on release, it certainly gave Nolan’s trilogy the epic ending it deserved.
As much as I believe everyone wanted to see more of Ledger’s Joker, Nolan approached the trilogy with all the care and respect both Batman’s character and the late Heath Ledger’s career deserved. It would have been all too easy to use archive footage of Heath Ledger’s Joker performance in The Dark Knight Rises, but Nolan didn’t fall for that trick.
Even though the original plans for the Dark Knight trilogy were radically different, it would be unfair to say “It could have been better”. Sure, seeing more of Ledger’s Joker in Rises would have been a treat, but, as it stands, the Australian actor offered the performance of a lifetime, and Goyer and Nolan got to tell a modern Batman story that only gets better with age.
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