<\/p>\n
\n\t[This story contains spoilers for Batman Begins<\/em> and The Dark Knight Rises<\/em>.]<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s hard to imagine anyone other than Christian Bale in the Batsuit\u00a0for Christopher Nolan\u2019s Dark Knight<\/em> trilogy, but screenwriter David S. Goyer revealed that Jake Gyllenhaal was considered for the role.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring Thursday\u2019s episode of the Happy Sad Confused<\/em>\u00a0podcast, Goyer, who helped develop the trilogy\u2019s story and co-wrote 2005\u2019s Batman Begins<\/em>, said that after a number of people screen-tested for the part of Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, in the first film, he \u201cadvocated for Gyllenhaal.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI mean, Gyllenhaal\u2019s amazing, Christian Bale\u2019s amazing, so who knows what,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen host Josh Horowitz asked him if there\u2019s any footage somewhere of Gyllenhaal auditioning in the Batman costume, the scribe said, \u201cI believe there is, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs for other roles in Nolan\u2019s trilogy, Goyer said, \u201cThere were a couple of different candidates in the running for Ra\u2019s Al Ghul,\u201d but that he voted for Liam Neeson because he \u201cwas a little older.\u201d He said it made more sense with the story they were trying to tell regarding \u201cthis paternal story about the shadow of his [Bruce\u2019s] father.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn Batman Begins<\/em>, Ken Watanabe was credited as portraying villain Ra\u2019s al Ghul as a decoy while Neeson, who was the real Ra\u2019s al Ghul and returned for 2012\u2019s The Dark Knight Rises<\/em>, was credited by his alias Henri Ducard.<\/p>\n \n\tLater in the episode, Goyer also recalled an executive from Warner Bros. suggesting to him at the premiere of 2008\u2019s The Dark Knight<\/em> that\u00a0Leonardo DiCaprio should play the Riddler in the next film. But Goyer told him, \u201cThat\u2019s not the way we work.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe said Nolan is \u201cvery process driven\u201d and was \u201cstaunchly against\u201d building a movie around the villain \u201cbecause he said that\u2019s not a bottom, ground-up way of telling a story. Let\u2019s do it in a very naturalistic way, so let\u2019s figure out what kind of story we want to tell and what we thematically want to explore with Bruce, and then let\u2019s figure out a villain that fits that story.\u201d<\/p>\n \n