The Dark Knight Rises: Five Actors That Could Play Batman Next

In spite of enthusiastic headlines around the Internet trumpeting that Christian Bale might come back as Batman for another go-’round, it appears that he’ll only do so if director Christopher Nolan were to return with him–something that Nolan has made clear time and time again will not be happening.Meanwhile, there appear to be plans to get a DC Cinematic Universe rolling, including a rumored 2015 Batman film that will re-establish the character with a tone and worldview more conducive to putting him in the Justice League movie.That means it’s time for one of reporters’ and fans’ favorite activities–pretending that we’re casting agents in charge of deciding who will be the next Batman. With presumably no continuity to carry over from The Dark Knight Rises, the film should be a pretty clean slate, allowing us to cast whomever seems best without concern for whether they would fit into Nolan’s universe.That said, we’d like to keep it limited to people who might have a shot at the role and so we’re omitting people like Ben Affleck, who has the physique but whose sorry history with superheroes wouldn’t do him any good; and anyone with major starring roles in existing Marvel franchises–or, really, any tentpole movie franchise that would be likely to keep them occupied for years and create scheduling conflicts (so, yeah, nobody from The Hunger Games or anything).