In the much anticipated sequel in the Arkham franchise, Batman Arkham Knight, a brand new villain has been created as our main antagonist, named no other than Arkham Knight. We've been given a teaser image, which is really only his silhouette, which if we weren't given information on the character before hand, you'd think it was the Dark Knight himself. Many of us refuse to accept that this Arkham Knight character is really a completely new character, but is an already pre-existing Batman foe, such as: Red Hood, Prometheus, Wrath, The Joker, Hush, etc. Some of us trust that it will be a completely new character, but me, my theory sits in between the two.
Before I say who I believe the mystery villain is, let's recap on what we know about the upcoming game and it's predecessors. Arkham Knight, title of the game and also the name of the main antagonist; we know Arkham Knight is supposed to be an opposite yet an equal to Batman, such as The Joker. With a name like Arkham Knight it's safe to speculate that this character has some sort of tie to Arkham Asylum or Arkham city. Arkham Knight uses guns. The Joker is the villain that drove each game, even the WB Montreal developed Arkham Origins. The Joker died in Arkham City and was cremated in the sequel comics. In the DLC, to Arkham city, Harley Quinn's Revenge, it was confirmed that the pregnancy test Easter-Egg in Arkham city was either a false positive, or Harley had a miscarriage; Cadmus Labs' posters can be found in the DLC. With that out of the way my theory is:
The Joker's clone:
Back to what we know, The Joker is the villain that drove this franchise thus far and a game without him won't be the same; we could get flashback and/or hallucinations but if my theory is right, they won't be necessary. The biggest thing that lead me to this theory was in Harley Quinn's Revenge. Easter-Egg hunters, if you're going to put Cadmus Labs' posters in a DLC based off the aftermath caused by the death of The Joker, while also confirming Harley would not be bearing his child, you might as well just told us that there is future plans to clone The Joker. Why would Cadmus Labs clone The Joker? Well this theory came to mind: Cadmus labs is not too fond of heroes and vigilantes if they can't control them; they see them as a menace and think the safety of the people should be by the people not unregistered masked heroes. Knowing this, Cadmus would just love the idea of taking out Batman with someone or something they can "control". Well who's better to take out the Bat other than his greatest foe The Joker, but there is no chance in hell they could control The Joker especially with him being dead and cremated. So what does Cadmus do? Well they swipe some of the blood he sent into Gotham, clean it up, and use his DNA to create a clone. Cadmus is smart about this, they know a clone of The Joker would not be the Joker; he probably won't be deformed, and he won't have the memories that makes The Joker, The Joker, so they alter his mind and body. They give him peak human strength, and give him memories that makes him more like Batman, a Batman they can control. Unexpectedly the clone escapes and learns of his true heritage; he realizes he's born of The Joker's blood, he is a child of Arkham. Like every other villain, he believes Batman killed The Joker, so he creates the Arkham Knight persona and seek revenge against The Dark Knight.
Well that concludes my theory. What do you think? Is it a sound theory, or do you think I need to be locked in an asylum? Let me know below!