Hugo Strange makes thematic sense, but I think it's unlikely for commercial reasons -- he's a relatively little-known character outside the core fanbase, and this film franchise is drawing such a wide viewership that I think the producers will want a more bankable antagonist (yes, even though the first film sidestepped all the more widely known villains and more or less got away with it).
That said....
I think the bean counters may push very hard for Catwoman/Selina Kyle for two reasons -- because she's such an iconic Batverse character (and therefore a big box office draw), and because they'll figure they need a new love interest.
I very much doubt that she's the writers'/story-development team's first choice; my suspicion is that they're already thinking in terms of the third film as something in the nature of Batman's redemption -- in Gotham's eyes, at least, so that at the end of the trilogy they've more or less finished laying the groundwork for the canonical Batverse. In order for that to work, they'll really need to have Bats meet and vanquish a bigger head-on citywide threat than Selina realistically poses.
What we may well get as a compromise is Selina and Talia. Selina because Catwoman is bankable, Talia because revenge is indeed a solid motivator, and both together because one of the cleverest things they could do after giving us the Harvey/Rachel/Bruce triangle (with Rachel at the fulcrum) would be to flip the triangle idea inside out, and give us Selina/Bruce/Talia (with Bruce at the fulcrum).
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Date: 2008-07-25 09:01 pm (UTC)Hugo Strange makes thematic sense, but I think it's unlikely for commercial reasons -- he's a relatively little-known character outside the core fanbase, and this film franchise is drawing such a wide viewership that I think the producers will want a more bankable antagonist (yes, even though the first film sidestepped all the more widely known villains and more or less got away with it).
That said....
I think the bean counters may push very hard for Catwoman/Selina Kyle for two reasons -- because she's such an iconic Batverse character (and therefore a big box office draw), and because they'll figure they need a new love interest.
I very much doubt that she's the writers'/story-development team's first choice; my suspicion is that they're already thinking in terms of the third film as something in the nature of Batman's redemption -- in Gotham's eyes, at least, so that at the end of the trilogy they've more or less finished laying the groundwork for the canonical Batverse. In order for that to work, they'll really need to have Bats meet and vanquish a bigger head-on citywide threat than Selina realistically poses.
What we may well get as a compromise is Selina and Talia. Selina because Catwoman is bankable, Talia because revenge is indeed a solid motivator, and both together because one of the cleverest things they could do after giving us the Harvey/Rachel/Bruce triangle (with Rachel at the fulcrum) would be to flip the triangle idea inside out, and give us Selina/Bruce/Talia (with Bruce at the fulcrum).