Aaron Eckhart Still Believes in Harvey Dent…?
This is one of those really baffling things that pops up in entertainment news every now and then; most likely, it’s just a statement taken out of context that I am blowing way out proportion. But so far, I haven’t seen anyone questioning it, so I’m going to go nuts.
THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR “THE DARK KNIGHT.” MAJOR ONES. DON’T PROCEED IF YOU CARE ABOUT THAT SORT OF THING.
A recent blurb on Contact Music bears the headline, “AARON ECKHART - ECKHART AGREES TO THIRD BATMAN FILM.” It reads, in entirety:
AARON ECKHART would reprise his role from THE DARK KNIGHT - because working with CHRISTIAN BALE is “phenomenal”. Eckhart, who plays District Attorney Harvey Dent in the sequel, confesses he “absolutely” would star in a third Batman film.
He tells WENN, “To work with Christian (Bale) all over again, and the cast, would be phenomenal. I think this movie is a movie of a lifetime.”
Well, that’s just great. I’m happy that he had a wonderful time and that he’d like to do it all over again. But, hey…
Harvey Dent is dead.
Those of us who saw the film already know this, of course. He falls from a great height and lies still, and they eulogize him, and the Batman takes the fall for his crimes. It’s a very important theme of the movie. And while Harvey Dent/Two-Face appearing in a third follow-up to Batman Begins might not sound odd to the casual observer, it really is. Quite odd.
There are few options here. If he is indeed going to “star” in a third film, that would mean copious flashbacks. Saw IV style. I think we can all chime in on a hearty OH HELL NAW. The distinctly more believable possibility is that he was just mindlessly answering some mindless journalist’s question, and/or that he didn’t want to spoil the movie by mentioning that he wouldn’t be coming back.
The third option is something that has been discussed already, and this statement might add more fuel to one camp’s fire. As always, since we didn’t actually see the body being lowered into the ground, many people are convinced that Harvey’s still alive and kicking somewhere. The fact that they faked Gordon’s death in The Dark Knight seems to indicate that director Christopher Nolan is not above that sort of trickery, but will he really pull the same thing twice?
Though I was initially surprised that he created and killed off a villian in the same film, I quickly realized that Two-Face can’t exist for long in this realistic Gotham. His more fantastical elements like a sudden split personality and the bi-colored suit wouldn’t work, and the coin toss element would get old after a while. It served the story better to kill him off and preserve Gotham’s faith in Harvey Dent.
Invariably, whenever a character is killed off and they don’t actually show his heartbeat stopping, there is a legion of people who will insist that he’s still alive. I seriously hope that they don’t take Aaron Eckhart’s comments to heart, because it’s quite likely that he was just babbling.
Bringing Two-Face back would destroy a large element of The Dark Knight - plus, would they even tell Eckhart about it at this time?
Please, Nolan, let Gotham’s white knight rest in peace. He deserves it.
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Your second possibility seems the most likely (the mindless answer to mindless question one). We’re not talking about the Friday the 13th franchise or its ilk here. We’re talking about serious dramas made by serious filmmakers. If Eckhart was just trying to avoid spoilers for Dark Knight, we should all applaud his discretion.