20 Things You Didn't Know About The Dark Knight Rises
18. Warner Bros. Wanted Nolan To Cast Leonardo DiCaprio As The Riddler
After The Dark Knight was propelled to major critical and commercial success off the back of Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker, Warner Bros. initially hoped that Nolan would give a similarly gritty reinvention to another iconic Batman foe - The Riddler.
Further still, the studio encouraged the director to have Leonardo DiCaprio play the supervillain, hoping he would be cast following their successful collaboration on Nolan's prior film Inception.
Ultimately Nolan, who has an uncommon amount of creative sway due to his impeccable winning streak at the box office, refused the studio's suggestion.
He instead decided that he wanted an antagonist who was a far cry from the villains of the two prior movies, particularly a character with a more overt physical presence. Hence, Bane.