When a film as near perfect as The Dark Knight comes along, you don’t leave the theater thinking, “That was awesome but what if …” You celebrate the cinematic gift you’ve been given. You begin using the words “best” and “ever” a lot in conjunction with each other. You wax poetic about brilliant, posthumous performances. You blog about how unfair it is that the Oscars are overlooking it, even though awards season is still months away and anything can happen. You go see it again, and again, and again (at least one time in IMAX!), making it the second highest grossing film of all time. You don’t dare nitpick or complain about a single frame.

Then you find out that Joss Whedon applied for Christopher Nolan‘s job. That’s when the “what if” bug bites you.

Apparently, Whedon had pitched Warner Bros. a Batman movie that he describes as “a bit less epic than (The Dark Knight‘s predecessor) Batman Begins.” Whedon’s story didn’t send Bruce Wayne to Tibet to hone his crime-fighting skills. Instead, it kept Batman home in Gotham City, and pitted him against a totally original, “Hannibal Lecter type” villain in Arkham Asylum.

My mind wanders towards Nathan Fillion in bat ears.

I suppose it’s pointless to wonder about what could have been (especially when what we got was so great), I think Nolan would be foolish not to consider Whedon’s approach if he makes a third Batman movie. After Heath Ledger‘s unforgettable turn as the Joker, it seems unfathomable that any other actor could reinvent a classic Batman villain as successfully, even if those rumors about Johnny Depp playing the Riddler had been true. Nolan has to create a new villain, or else he risks making a movie that will seem derivative of his own masterpiece.

Do you want a new villain, or are you dying to see Christian Bale take on King Tut and the Bookworm? Are you eager for Whedon to turn his Batman story into a comic, or are you hoping he’ll hold on to the idea in case Nolan fails miserably with his next film and the franchise needs to be reinvented again?