Will Batman Have A Sidekick In 'The Dark Knight Rises?'

OK, random odd question: has anyone else but I noticed how often it seems like “Michael Caine” or “Alfred” shows up in these “The Dark Knight Rises” reports? Just me? OK, then.

Caine was chatting recently while promoting “Cars 2” when Collider reports that he may have let something slip about Batman having a sidekick in “The Dark Knight Rises.”

"I started filming last week and I film next week," said Caine. "As the butler, I do a load of filming at the beginning, and everybody goes off and does all theadventures and they all come home shot to pieces and I patch them together when they all get back."

“They?”

This could be reading a lot into very little. He could be talking about Batman (Christian Bale) partnering with Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Anne Hathaway.) But if he isn’t, there’s only one other possible second that could be the other half of that “they”: Robin. That would be quite the logical leap, since reports have become very open about casting and which recognizable characters will be appearing and which will not. Thus far, Robin hasn’t been mentioned at all.

For the record, that may be for the better. During the previous “Batman” incarnation, the series did start sliding perilously downhill with the introduction of otherwise fine chap Chris O’Donnell as Dick Grayson in “Batman Forever,” followed by the franchise-murdering “Batman and Robin.”

There are great stories involving Robin, no doubt. Unfortunately, with Heath Ledger gone and many of those stories involving the Joker, adding him now just doesn’t seem such a great idea. There’s such a thing as making a plot too complex and with so many names from Batman’s lineage either confirmed or strongly expected, there has to be a point where it just all becomes too much to take in.