Since the runaway success of The Dark Knight – the second highest grossing movie of all time – rumours regarding who will star in the next flick have been rife, and most have been unfounded. Until now.
The Dark Knight star Michael Caine has publicly stated that the third installment of the film will star Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.
In an interview conducted at the Toronto Film Festival, Caine fuelled speculation, initially joking with press:
“They’ve already got them in mind,” said Caine, “It’s Johnny Depp as The Riddler. And The Penguin is Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I read it in the paper.”
But the rumours quickly got serious as Caine got into more depth.
“I was with [a Warner Bros.] executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said yeah. I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath — Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, ‘S–t, they’ve done it again!’”
While this is more of an indication of Warner Brothers intention to cast the two acting giants, rather than an actual confirmation, Caine is the closest source to the film to speak publicly about the second sequel.