Josh Pence to play young Ra’s al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises flashbacks

Josh Pence, who played one of the two Winklevoss twins in The Social Network (albeit with Armie Hammer’s face superimposed over his own), has been revealed to be playing a young Ra’s Al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises. Sources say “Pence will appear in scenes that take place 30 years prior to the present story.”

So we have some apparent confirmation of the rumours that The Dark Knight Rises will feature more ties to the storyline of Batman Begins than The Dark Knight did. Marion Cotillard’s character is unconfirmed still, but of course this fuels the fires behind the idea that she will be playing Talia al Ghul, meeting Bruce Wayne after the death of her father.

What do you think of the plot heading in this direction? I myself was on board with the rumblings last year that the final film in the trilogy would feature Professor Hugo Strange attempting to steal Batman’s identity in a loose adaptation of the Prey story arc; I thought that was a really cool idea. I’m still willing to see where Nolan goes with this, though.

Anne Hathaway (as Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman), Tom Hardy (as Bane), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as of yet unknown) are also members of the cast…though I’m guessing every single one of you who is reading this knew that already.

I sincerely hope they don’t “resurrect” Liam Neeson’s character; the Ra’s al Ghul in the present. I don’t like it when they do that. Heh.