Nolan's Third Batman Movie and The Call for Action Heroines to Pass the Bechdel Test

Any hope for Harley, Catwoman,
or Poison Ivy? How about Barbara
Gordon? 

The third Batman film is in the works, and I for one am really curious about whether or not we will have the chance to meet any strong female characters in Nolan's dark and gritty version of Gotham. There are a plethora of action heroines to choose from in the DC universe that run across Batman's path, but even if we don't get Catwoman or Poison Ivy, how about a young Barbara Gordon at least? We know that Rachel Dawes is officially gone from the universe, Bruce Wayne's lifelong love interest in this version of DC's world. Which is okay with me.

But with Nolan's ability to bring to life some of the, up until now, secondary characters from the comic book story lines (such as Scarecrow, Lucius Fox and Ra's A Ghul), I wonder if there is any way he is considering bringing in Paul Dini's Harley Quinn to avenge the Joker? Or any one of the aforementioned female characters at all?

I admit, I'll be frustrated if we don't get at least some kind of mention of the women of Gotham. We don't have to see The Birds of Prey in action or anything (though I'd LOVE to see that) and a lot of the strong women of the DC universe are inherently flawed, big time. Which is what makes them interesting. But give me at least a hint of something. If they're completely ignored, I'd be interested in hearing the reasoning as to why from a writing standpoint, they aren't even acknowledged as existing.

Sirens of Gotham

I've been reading the new comic series, Sirens of Gotham, and I'm loving it. Which is what got me started thinking about the third Batman movie in the first place. When the Dark Knight rolled around, I was pretty disappointed at the roster of potential female characters that were overlooked.

I would just love to see an entire series of comic book films come out with the gender stats reversed. Let's have an action/comic movie filled with almost all women (If only Wonder Woman would've survived pre-production!) in which there are only one or two men, and all those men only talk about the women. Eh, forget that. Just give me a balanced cast. Just once. Not every movie has to be even, but let's see it happen in this genre just once.

How about you, what action heroine would you like to see in the next Batman film? Also, what actress would you like to see cast? Let's talk about it in the comments section.

Birds of Prey

What's the Bechdel test you ask? Well, if you haven't seen it, there's a very popular YouTube video that breaks it down. It's a feminist way of critiquing a movie, and it's sort of astounding when you stop and think about it.

We need more movies featuring action heroines that will pass the Bechdel test. (The X-Men movies almost did it. Iron Man 2 was one of the first, and even then, it was by a slim margin.) But just imagine a Birds of Prey movie done with the quality and conviction with which Nolan's Batman films have been made...can you even imagine? That thing would ace the Bechdel.

Funny thing...I went to embed the video, having not watched it for a while and guess what the first film is that pops up?