The L.A. Times “Hero Complex” column recently had an interview with Christopher Nolan, who had a bit to say about the 3rd upcoming Batman movie in his famed series.

He goes on to reveal the new movie’s title will be “The Dark Knight Rises“, and not “Shadow of the Bat” like a few rumor mills were banking on. He also would not reveal the villains of the film, but did knock a few off the list – namely the Riddler and Mr. Freeze. The Riddler was the fan-favorite for possible Nolanverse villain in the 3rd movie, given the gritty realism that Nolan has been staunch to stick to. The Mr. Freeze angle, while could work within Nolan’s means if done a different way than we’re used to, was stricken from the list just to save us the trouble of guessing who could be a villain if not Edward Nygma.

That being said, Nolan went on to say

We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones.

This opens up a few more possibilities to play around with. Will Scarecrow or Ra’s al Ghul being reprising roles? Harvey Dent was clearly dead as of the end of TDK and Joker will likely not be coming back any time soon for obvious reasons. Perhaps the Penguin? Bane? Hush?