Caution: The following may contain some spoilers for the five of you who haven’t already seen The Dark Knight.

Ever since seeing The Dark Knight I have wondered “who’s the next bad guy going to be?”. Two Face isn’t going to be in the next Batman installment for obvious reasons, but the movie ended with the obvious intent of having the Joker return as the villain of Batman 3, but due to the tragic passing of the great Heath Ledger, I highly doubt they would even consider recasting the role. So who then could be Gotham City’s next big threat? Here is a small list of villains I would like to see do battle with the Dark Knight in the next Batman sequel.

The Penguin

The Penguin could be a very interesting villain in the new Batman series. He could be some kind of illegal weapons dealer or mob boss, something along those lines. Even if he wasn’t the primary villain I could still picture him as being the bad guy who knows about all the evil doings of Gotham City, so Batman would have to tolerate him for information on the other villains of Gotham. Unfortunately, director Christopher Nolan says he believes the Penguin to be harder to portray in the more realistic Batman films, and says that they wish to focus more on villains who haven’t appeared in previous Batman films, so at this point in time the Penguins chances don’t look too good.

The Riddler

The Riddler would be an interesting choice, he does seem a little bit over the top, but I feel it could be possible to make a darker, more intimidating Riddler. They could pull of something similar (though probably not equal) to what they did with the Joker. He may have the potential to be down right creepy if done right. But once again, they don’t want to much emphasis on villains that have already been done before…

The Scarecrow

I have to admit, there was something that bugged me about The Dark Knight, and that’s that the Scarecrow, my second favorite Batman villain (after the Joker himself), was given the “Count Dooku treatment”. That is to say he was reduced to a very brief role after being a major character in the previous film. I know some people will say he can’t be the main villain after such an appearance but I say he can IF they do it right. They just need to make him go darker and a bit more insane. They would need to bump him up to the great villain that he really is. I also think there are also three good reasons why giving the Scarecrow a little promotion is a good idea.

1. The character has already been established so they wouldn’t have to recreate another character from the comics thus preventing the introduction of so many super villains  that it feels too much like a “comic book movie” and keep the “more realistic” feel of the current films.
2. They don’t want a villain who has been in one of the previous Batman films, but since Scarecrow was only introduced in Batman Begins he could still potentially qualify.
3. Scarecrows are awesome.

Although I doubt if they will even have Scarecrow in the next film, its always cool to think of the possibilities.

The Ventriloquist and Scarface

The Ventriloquist (with Scarface) has the potential to be a truly terrifying foe. A deranged psychopath who thinks his puppet (Scarface) is some kind of mob boss who barks orders at him. It could work. He even fits into all the criteria for the Christopher Nolan series. Darker, more realistic villain. check! No former appearances in previous films. Check! I would love to see the Ventriloquist as the villain in the next movie, he has all the makings of a great movie villain, and he would fit perfectly into the new Batman series.

So there are some of my thoughts on some potential villains for Batman 3. Of course at this point in time it’s all just speculation, anything can happen. Hope you enjoyed this nerdish rant. I’ll post some thoughts of some other potential Batman villains soon. But for now enjoy pondering these possibilities.