SOURCE: EMPIREONLINE

He may only have enjoyed a couple of scenes in The Dark Knight, but he is Gotham’s cinematic mayor and was once Bat Manuel, and for that, we owe Nestor Carbonell our Bat-loyalty. It would seem that Christopher Nolan feels the same way, since The Man Who Always Looks Like He’s Wearing Eyeliner is now in negotiations to return for The Dark Knight Rises.

Nolan is bringing back the majority of his stalwart Bat-veterans, with Christian Bale donning the cowl (and Bruce Wayne’s suits/tortured psychology), Michael Caine brushing up on his paternal, disapproving eyebrow work for Alfred, Gary Oldman assuming the full mantle of Commissioner Gordon and Morgan Freeman coming up with some wonderful new toys for Batman as Lucius Fox.

And there are also the newcomers to the franchise, with Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Juno Temple, Josh Pence and Rescue Me’s Daniel Sunjata already aboard.

Carbonell will be presiding over what we assume will be a slightly different-looking Gotham this time around, since the production has picked Pittsburgh as its primary location. Still, here’s hoping they do a little aerial shooting in Chicago so we don’t think the city has slipped into a parallel universe…