Widely reported this morning isa piece over at Batman fansite Batman on Film, which suggests that Christopher Nolan, the director of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, may be reluctant to continue the series.
The alarmist article sites a shady "behind the camera" source, defensively pegged as "legit", claiming that Nolan was sufficiently rocked by Heath Ledger's death to not want to continue (The Joker was apparently slated to turn up in at least one more film), and that a threequel, even if it arrives via other hands, is unlikely until at least 2012.
Nolan is currently working on the mega-budget Inception, so it could just be that he simply doesn't want to think about Batman at the moment. Or it could be that, like Bat-Predecessor Tim Burton or Bryan Singer on the X-Men franchise, he prefers to step back now and serve only as producer.
CHUD, meanwhile, have a conspiracy theory: that Nolan is using the press to play hardball with the studio and negotiate himself a sweeter deal... We couldn't possibly comment.
But what do you think? Can the series continue without its visionary director?