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Who will Batman fight next?

By Patrick Kevin Day, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

"The Dark Knight" hasn't even opened yet and the lines are just now queuing, but can any actual film-going experience top the months of anticipation spent reading clues and rumors from the set online? With the hard reality of "The Dark Knight" staring us in the face, what's a Bat-fan to do?

Look ahead to the next one, of course.

At this point, we don't really know anything. Director Christopher Nolan has said he views this as the second part of a trilogy and star Christian Bale has already weighed in on his thoughts on a third film, so it appears they both have an eye on returning.

But as the girl is to James Bond, the deformed freakish villain is to Batman, so we have to ask: Whom will Batman fight next?

In interviews, Nolan has stated his preference for keeping his Batman vision grounded in the crime world instead of the superhero world, so don't expect to see Batman fighting off aliens, Man-Bats or crazy scientists in the next installment. But after giving us interpretations of Ra's Al Ghul, Scarecrow, Joker and Two-Face, we have to wonder who's left in the rogue's gallery.