10 Leading Film Characters That Didn’t Really Go Anywhere

In Christopher Nolan’s trilogy-ending film, Gotham City cop, John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) deduces that reclusive billionaire, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is The Batman and hopes to get him back into the game after an 8-year absence.

Blake achieves this early in the film, but his character arc doesn’t really progress any further from there. He does the work that audiences would expect of any other cop, but he also unintentionally reveals himself to be almost entirely unsuitable to be Batman’s potential successor.

He otherwise spends most of his time unnecessarily standing in for Alfred Pennyworth (Sir Michael Caine), depriving audiences of the chance to see how Bruce’s butler would have endured Gotham under the rule of Bane (Tom Hardy). Even though Nolan drops heavy hints that Blake may be a reinvented Robin, that particular revelation comes at the climax of the film and The Boy Wonder isn’t really the most fondly loved of comic book characters.

By the end of the film, Blake has left the Gotham City Police Department and, although he has the will to act, he lacks most of the Caped Crusader’s skills and the essential training that he desperately needs to last five minutes against the city's crooks. Fans have even speculated that he would likely not remain Gotham’s Dark Knight for long, given his reliance upon Batman and guns in the film, and his poor fighting skills.