Earlier today, Warner Brothers made the official announcement over Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard joining The Dark Knight Rises. Gordon-Levitt was announced as John Blake, a beat cop assigned to a special unit headed by Gordon, and Cotillard will be playing Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member who grows close to a grieving Bruce Wayne. It didn't take long for fans to respond to this, with most predicting that Tate is really Talia in disguise and that Gordon-Levitt is being wasted in a small role. After months of rumors and speculation, we finally got an answer and most fans were not happy.
But this leads to a major issue surrounding TDKR: fan expectations. Saying that The Dark Knight Rises is one of the most anticipated comic book movies in years is a major understatement. We have all been waiting for this movie since the closing credits of The Dark Knight and now that filming is slated to start soon, speculation will only increase. Even before an official announcement there were Riddler and Harley Quinn rumors, then Black Mask, Hugo Strange, and Talia rumors. Even now rumors still swirl that Hugo Strange is still a villain in the movie. Many fans pegged Gordon-Levitt for Black Mask or Alberto Falcone and now that his role has been revealed, fans have turned on the movie.
We just set the bar too high.
Our excitement and speculation were running rampart and no matter who JGL was playing, we were setting ourselves up for a let down. But could this insane fan excitement hurt the movie? I think it very well could.
The speculation will only continue up until the opening night, especially with Christopher Nolan's love of secrecy. We're going to head into this movie with all sorts of ideas of what's going to happen and internet rumors claiming to spoil major twists. Fans will revolt if Miranda Tate is indeed just a love interest and not Talia Al Ghul, and fans will probably be disappointed to see that JGL just plays a cop (and I'm sure there will be rumors in no time stating that he's another character in disguise). If there's something comic book fans do best, it's set massive expectations for movies, only to have those expectations get shot down. But are we the only ones to blame for this? I don't think so, in fact, if fans are let down because of their massive expectations, there's one person to blame...
Christopher Nolan.
Nolan loves secrecy, he wants his audiences to know as little as possible heading into his movies, and there seems to be a lot more secrecy around TDKR than the previous two Bat-films. While I like that Nolan likes to surprise fans, it could seriously hurt him one day. Just look at what happened with fan's reactions to JGL's casting. If Nolan continues to play things this close to the chest, fans will only get more and more excited and follow more and more false leads on the movie, looking for any sort of news they can find. Armed with any sort of rumor they can find, fans will go into this movie expecting one thing and get something very different. Now I'm not saying that Nolan should tell us everything from the get go, but just give us a little bit here and there, enough to keep us happy and keep us interested.
So yes, Nolan's secrecy and the fan's rampart speculation is a double edged sword, one that must be wielded very carefully. Now personally, I think the Marion Cotillard casting is an obvious cover for her as Talia, especially with the news of a young Ras Al Ghul being in the film, but as for JGL's casting? Well, I'm strangely okay with that. I was worried that this film was straying into Spider-Man 3 territory with the villains, and I'm glad to see that Gordon-Levitt is just a supporting player. Fans are saying that it's a waste of his talent, but I'm guessing that it's a pretty important role or else Gordon-Levitt wouldn't be playing it. Maybe he's a Harvey Bullock type character out to bring in the bat, or maybe he ends up helping out the bad guys in some way.
In conclusion, Team Nolan messed up with this news. They should have announced Joseph Gordon-Levitt as this cop character right away instead of letting it sit so fans could whip themselves into a frenzy over who he was playing. As for Marion Cotillard, well it's an obvious cover for what could be one of the worst kept secrets of the movie and most likely a major twist (and I personally will be severely disappointed if she doesn't turn out to be Talia). But hopefully this will serve as a lesson to us fans about getting worked up over the smallest bit of TDKR news, and hopefully this will serve as a lesson to Team Nolan about toying with our expectations.