Actual Batman 3 news! James Pence cast as... (spoilers). Will The Dark Knight Rises even acknowledge The Dark Knight?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, James Pence has been apparently been cast as a young Ra's Al Ghul in Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. Spence, currently best known as the unlucky soul who had his face digitally replaced by Arnie Hammer in The Social Network, will apparently play a young Liam Neeson in a flashback sequence taking place thirty years before the events of Batman Begins. The only thing I have to offer about this is the following: Marion Cotillard is allegedly playing Talia Al Ghul (Ra's Al Ghul's daughter in the comics). Gary Oldman and others have claimed that it ties-in pretty directly to Batman Begins, with the League of Shadows returning and the trilogy wrapping up in a 'full circle' kind of way. So, the question is, will this be yet another part 3 that more-or-less ignores the events of the second film? Will The Dark Knight Rises be another second sequel that operates purely as a sequel to the first film rather than a third part in a continuing story?

Examples of this annoying pattern abound, such as Spider-Man 2, Scream 3, Die Hard: With a Vengeance, and A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors. In all of these third films, there is maybe one or two moments at best that references the second chapter. With Harvey Dent dead on screen and Heath Ledger dead in real life, this may be another case where part II is more-or-less swept under the rug for the third film. What makes this ironic is that in quite a few of these cases (Scream 2, Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight), part II is considered by many to be the best film of the series. Obviously this is all speculation, but it will be interesting to see how much Chris Nolan acknowledges the events of The Dark Knight during The Dark Knight Rises.

Scott Mendelson