3. To Appropriately Explain Ra's Al Ghul's Cameo
Not only will a young Ra's Al Ghul appear in The Dark Knight Rises, thanks to a flashback sequence that presumably ties the League of Shadows further into the narrative of either Batman or Bane or both, but we will also get to see a return to the series of Liam Neeson, who will reprise his role of the contemporary Ra's. Just where that fits in with the story-line remains up for debate until we see it confirmed later this week, but there is one theory that says that both Ra's and the Lazarus Pits will make an appearance in the film as part of the resurrection of a dead Batman, who will be killed at the hands of Bane. If we are going to see a story arc in which Bane is presented as Ra's Al Ghul's former heir, whose destruction of Gotham is his attempt to show that he is worthy, it would be fitting to see Bane kill Batman, only to see Ra's Al Ghul resurrect him for a final show-down in which the Bat emerges victorious with the help of both Catwoman and Ra's (and possibly Azrael, if that's who John Blake is destined to become). Now that, I could buy into. It may appear to be something of a departure from Nolan's more realistic Batman universe, but immortality and the Lazarus Pits play an essential part in Ra's Al Ghul's story-line, and it would certainly explain Ra's Al Ghul's reappearance after his apparent death Batman Begins. And we need to be reminded that Nolan's films are still comic book films.