With the
apparent inclusion of The League of Shadows and Talia Al Ghul (believed to be Marion Cotillard) who will supposedly hire the villainous Bane (Tom Hardy) to avenge her father in the soon to be shooting
The Dark Knight Rises, it's safe to say that the third Batman film will have more links to
Christopher Nolan's first in the saga, Batman Begins, than it's predecessor had. And because of that, and because of the nature of the Ra's Al Ghul character in the comics (briefly - he is one of The Caped Crusader's more supernatural villains as he is essentially immortal and can be revived from the death via a Lazarus Pit) there's been heightened fan expectation that
Liam Neeson could reprise the role in the new movie, taking the finale to Nolan's trilogy full circle to where it started. I purposefully say 'heightened' because speculation of a possible Ra's appearance has always surrounded Nolan's franchise as soon as the credits ended on his original film... If you watch Batman Begins, Chris Nolan and his screenwriter David Goyer certainly gave us plenty of smoke to create our own fire, note particularly the seen where Ra's Al Ghul tells Bruce Wayne;
The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome, loaded trade ships with plague rats, burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.
Of course a quote like that works both ways (i.e. he could be talking about The League of Shadows as an entity or himself) but there's alot more similar moments in Batman Begins if you watch the movie closely to
at least pay homage to the fans. And yes, we never did see that dead body at the end of the film to signify his death like we did Harvey Dent. During the press rounds for his latest Euro-thriller Unknown, Neeson
revealed to Empire recently (via
Digital Spy) that he has not yet had a call from Nolan, but he very much welcomes one;
But no-ones approached me with an offer. Id like to if it happens.
Though of course if Neeson has already been asked, do you think he would tell us? The Dark Knight Rises is due to begin in around two months time for a release July 20, 2012.