Josh Pence Cast as Young Ra’s Al Ghul

For the next and possible final installment of the Batman trilogy, director and writer Christopher Nolan is pulling out all the stops to bring the story full circle. The latest bit of casting news confirms the inclusion of the character originated by actor Liam Neeson in ‘Batman Begins’.  Ra’s Al Ghul was the catalyst to Bruce Wayne’s philosophical and crime fighting mindset though his character was ultimately revealed to be the villain of the piece as the head of The League of Shadows.

Josh Pence from the facebook flick The Social Network, has been cast as the same character though as a younger version who will feature most likely via flashbacks. Although it hasn’t been officially announced, actress Marion Cotillard is set to join the cast in June after she has her baby, and her involvement is being kept under wraps though it has been reported that she will play Ra’s Al Ghul’s daughter Tahlia Al Gul. Now if you’re thinking you don’t remember seeing Josh Pence in ‘The Social Network’, you’d be both right and wrong – as he played the other half of the Winklevoss twins. Armie Hammer‘s face was digitally mapped onto his body so that the story could feature the money hungry identical twins.

Some reports have also suggested that Liam Neeson may return though the actor is said to be wanting the rest of the year off after wrapping ‘The Wrath of The Titans’ before working on the sequel to ‘Taken’. While this could be a smokescreen so that he might reprise his character, the inclusion of Tahlia Al Gul as the head of The League of Shadows would bring the story full circle and the flashbacks that feature the younger Ra’s Al Ghul played by Pence, would likely serve to enhance her back story.

Pence recently finished work on Universal’s big-budget adaptation of the board game ‘Battleship’ and the indie political thriller flick ‘The Algerian’.

Starring Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Juno Temple,  The Dark Knight Rises opens July 20th, 2012.

via: THR