By: Russ Burlingame on December 19, 2011
We just got done talking about a disturbing rumor surrounding director Christopher Nolan’s upcoming third Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, and lo! Here comes a new trailer. “When Gotham is ashes,” Bane tells a bloodied Bruce Wayne as he lies on the ground, “You have my permission to die.” Themes of class war appear in the film and appear to lend credibility to earlier indications that filming at the Occupy Wall Street protests may have been somewhat tone deaf had they decided to go through with it.
Oh, and you know those earlier rumors that Christopher Nolan may be teasing a DC film universe by hiding clever references to other DC characters in the film’s promotion? Well, there’s one hiding in plain sight in the trailer: Tim Drake’s version of the Robin logo appears on a sign during a football game where Bane apparently plans to stage a terror attack.
Does it mean anything? It’s hard to say, but rumors have persistently named Nolan regular Joseph Gordon Levitt, whose role as a police officer seems strangely small, as a potential Robin and some reports have even suggested that scenes have been shot to throw the public off the trail of the plot, a rumor which, if true, could explain away photos of Levitt in a policeman’s uniform.
Bane’s first major appearance in comics featured a battle royale that left Batman temporarily unable to walk. Could he be Tim Drake, whose wheelchair-bound father might meet up with Bruce at physical therapy? It’s not outside of the realm of possibility.
And you see that guy just below the sign in the black cap? It wouldn’t be surprising if he was somebody to watch, as well. In the full screenshot, every character is looking in one direction except him, and the woman holding the “O” sign. But since she appears to be talking to the guy behind the Robin “R,” it’s possible that the lower character is an operative of Bane’s, and maybe even that the Robin logo was placed there to keep sharp-eyed fans focused on that part of the crowd.
