Had Heath Ledger not passed away, I think a third Batman would be obvious. However, without Joker, who I think they intended to bring back, im not sure what direction they can go. They could make a new movie, and there are many good villains out there, but how can they address the issue of the Joker. Hes been arrested and detained. They must have envisioned a role for him in the next one, even if it was small. As for the curse of the third movie, if theres a franchise that can get past that its this one. I think the Riddler would make an interesting enemy, Catwomen could be intriguing, maybe the Penguin. To me the having the Riddler be a crazy serial killer would be cool, but it has to be more than that. As Batman and Joker each represent something larger than themselves, all Batman Villains must now live up to this standard, or the movie is sure to fall short. So perhaps the Riddler could be a kind of urban terrorist, blowing up buildings, trying to cause chaos in the series, maybe even trying to carry the torch for the Joker. But once again, to do this and to not acknowledge the jokers existence, seems difficult. We will see, I hope they try, even if it does come out bad. And Christian Bale, tone down the deep voice nonsense, you over did it in Dark Knight.

The Ventriloquist is one of the Batman comic's most fascinating and overlooked baddies. I would love to see this character in the next movie. I would never have classed Ra's al Ghul as an obvious choice for a movie villain as he isn't well known except to comic fans, but Nolan boldly used him and it worked brilliantly well. I'm sure in Nolan's hands the Ventriloquist will be pure cinema magic - think of the potential for brilliant criminal conflict and wild madness this character can promise!