IGN has received plublicity material for model/actress India Wadsworth that describes her role in
The Dark Knight Rises as "The Warlord's Daughter." Of course the proper assumption from there is that India is playing Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's daughter (Liam Neeson). But when they looked at her
official resume it said that her role is that of a "Mother."
IGN has speculated that she could be Talia, or Talia's mother, or perhaps even Bane's mother.
I tend to believe that she is playing the role of Talia al Ghul's mother and here is why. Let's start with the fact that two people have come forward and said that a young Talia al Ghul is in the movie. First we had a mother state that her daughter dropped out of contention for the role because it required the actress to shave her head. Then
Joey King confirmed in an interview that she was playing Talia al Ghul.
"I play young Talia al Ghul. I can’t give too much away because I promised Mr. Nolan I wouldn’t say anything. There are too many secrets about the character and the movie."
Okay, now let's speculate. We know Josh Pence is in the film and several sites have reported that he will be playing a younger version of Liam Neeson for flashbacks. As you can see from the pictures below there is quite the similarities.
The thinking here is that Nolan had Liam Neeson's character in
Batman Begins describe how his wife was killed (video below), and now he'll show us how he transformed into a vigilante. Based on India Wadsworth's youthful appearance it might be smart to assume that if she is Talia's mom she will be murdered before we see Joey King's (12-years-old) as Talia. And then we would see Ra's al Ghul raising his daughter Talia in the art of combat.
In the comics Talia's mother has had a few different back-stories, but the one that makes the most sense would be the version used in
Batman: Son of the Demon (1987). In which Talia's mother Melisande is murdered by a former servant of Ra's named Qayin. In another version used in
Batman: Birth of the Demon (1992) Talia's mother dies from a drug overdose.
Skip to the 4:00 mark.
The Dark Knight Rises hits theaters July 20th 2012 and stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, Tom Hardy as Bane, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake and Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate.