The Dark Knight Rises: 6 Batman Villains We Could Have Seen

4. Red Hood

Why: There are two Red Hoods. The first was The Joker prior to his whole acid face incident, and the second was left-for-dead ex-Robin, Jason Todd. I€™m more interested in the latter. Nolan is no stranger to taking a well known character and quickly killing them off. So what better way to change the pace of TDKR than to introduce Robin as the beginning of the film, then kill him off 30 minutes in, only to bring him back later in the film as Red Hood. Todd€™s version of Red Hood is akin to The Punisher; he kills bad guys. This whole idea of the €˜line in the sand€™ between righteous crime fighting and dangerous vigilantism has formed the backbone of the first two Batman films. So to address this as a main story arc in TDKR would fit perfectly with Nolan€™s work. How: First thing Nolan would probably do is break a golden rule in comic book lore, and have Robin brought into TDKR with a pre-established origin - have him just already working as a crime fighter. In the absence of Batman, Jason Todd could be fighting the war against the likes of Black Mask as Robin. After Robin is €˜killed€™ by Black Mask, there is an outcry for Batman to return and tackle these monsters. Soon it is noted that bad guys are turning up dead, and a new crime fighter by the name of Red Hood is taking responsibility. Batman would then have a double edged duty of fighting crime and stopping Red Hood from killing in the name of justice. Who: James Franco. He has done it before, the whole flawed anti-hero thing, in Spider-Man. But the difference here is that Franco is older and wiser, and TDKR will be infinitely better than the Sam Raimi web slinging trilogy. Franco has a flash charisma and dark intelligence that can be a potent mix when used correctly. He would work very well against Christian Bale, and could give the Robin character a long overdue kick in the tail feather.