The cast for Chris Nolan’s third trip to Gotham City, The Dark Knight Rises just keeps getting more and more intriguing as each new actor’s role peels away another layer of the film’s tightly-wrapped security. The latest addition? Social Network** performer Josh Pence who, according to the Heat Vision Blog is playing a younger version of Ra’s Al Ghul.
You might recall that the grown Al Ghul was played by Liam Neeson in Batman Begins, and was the head of the League of Shadows, a group dedicated to bringing down regimes.
Ghul gets exploderised at the end of the film, but according to the site’s sources, Pence will be seen in scenes that take place 30 years before the current storyline.
Very little else is known about the movie at this point. Some plot elements (such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing Alberto Falcone) have been disputed since they were announced, and Nolan has stayed largely mum about the actual story.
We do know that Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman are back, joined by newcomers Tom Hardy (Bane), Anne Hathaway (Selina Kyle) and Marion Cotillard, who has been linked to the role of Talia Al Ghul, Ra’s daughter. Pence playing the younger Ghul gives yet more credibility to the idea that she will be Talia. Nolan is set to kick off shooting next month in several locations, including Pittsburgh.
You may not have seen Pence’s face in The Social Network, since his scenes saw it digitally replaced with Armie Hammer. But he’s definitely in many of the scenes featuring the Winklevoss twins. He’ll next crop up in Battleship.