Is India Wadsworth Playing Talia Al Ghul's Mother In THE DARK KNIGHT RISES?

India Wadsworth's publicist say that she is playing "The Warlord's Daughter" in The Dark Knight Rises, but her official resume simply describes her role as "Mother." Spoiler Warning!

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By nailbiter111 - 6/25/2012
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IGN has received plublicity material for model/actress India Wadsworth that describes her role in The Dark Knight Rises as "The Warlord's Daughter." Of course the proper assumption from there is that India is playing Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's daughter (Liam Neeson). But when they looked at her official resume it said that her role is that of a "Mother."

IGN has speculated that she could be Talia, or Talia's mother, or perhaps even Bane's mother.

I tend to believe that she is playing the role of Talia al Ghul's mother and here is why. Let's start with the fact that two people have come forward and said that a young Talia al Ghul is in the movie. First we had a mother state that her daughter dropped out of contention for the role because it required the actress to shave her head. Then Joey King confirmed in an interview that she was playing Talia al Ghul.
"I play young Talia al Ghul. I can’t give too much away because I promised Mr. Nolan I wouldn’t say anything. There are too many secrets about the character and the movie."

Okay, now let's speculate. We know Josh Pence is in the film and several sites have reported that he will be playing a younger version of Liam Neeson for flashbacks. As you can see from the pictures below there is quite the similarities.


The thinking here is that Nolan had Liam Neeson's character in Batman Begins describe how his wife was killed (video below), and now he'll show us how he transformed into a vigilante. Based on India Wadsworth's youthful appearance it might be smart to assume that if she is Talia's mom she will be murdered before we see Joey King's (12-years-old) as Talia. And then we would see Ra's al Ghul raising his daughter Talia in the art of combat.

In the comics Talia's mother has had a few different back-stories, but the one that makes the most sense would be the version used in Batman: Son of the Demon (1987). In which Talia's mother Melisande is murdered by a former servant of Ra's named Qayin. In another version used in Batman: Birth of the Demon (1992) Talia's mother dies from a drug overdose.

Skip to the 4:00 mark.



The Dark Knight Rises hits theaters July 20th 2012 and stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, Tom Hardy as Bane, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake and Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate.

Source: ign
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RidiculousFanBoyDemands - 6/25/2012, 10:58 PM
Not, bad. Ra's has good taste in women. From all the pictures I find of her, she looks too young to have a daughter that is ten or so. Unless Ra's knocked her up at an age that Roman Polanski would certainly approve of.


He never says anything about his wife and daughter being killed, he says they were taken from him. I know it's minor semantics, but perhaps Bane took them from him? After all it was rumored that Bane was meant to be much older than he looked.
JDUKE25 - 6/25/2012, 11:03 PM
" In which Talia's mother Melisande is by a former servant of Ra's named Qayin."

I think you're missing the word "killed" in that sentence Nail.
JDUKE25 - 6/25/2012, 11:04 PM
Seems legit though. It'd be interesting to see how those past events played out.
JDUKE25 - 6/25/2012, 11:12 PM


nailbiter111 - 6/25/2012, 11:12 PM
lol
nailbiter111 - 6/25/2012, 11:13 PM
RidiculousFanBoyDemands - good point on her youthfulness. i altered my speculation for that.
RidiculousFanBoyDemands - 6/25/2012, 11:20 PM
@JDUKE

By far one of the funniest things I've seen on this site.

RidiculousFanBoyDemands - 6/25/2012, 11:35 PM
Isn't the spoiler in the title?
nailbiter111 - 6/25/2012, 11:40 PM
i put the spoiler warning more so for the joey king info.
UrbanKnight - 6/25/2012, 11:52 PM
excellent choice ras..she's hot. im pretty sure she can act, i hope.
AsianVersionOfET - 6/26/2012, 12:19 AM
Cooool!
TheSoulEater - 6/26/2012, 12:28 AM
I could see the both of them making a kid that looks like Marion Cottilard
RobertGarlen - 6/26/2012, 12:33 AM
Anyone else think she could be Talia and give Birth to Damian?
ElChavo - 6/26/2012, 1:19 AM
Seeing that Batman Begins clip makes me more excited to see how the trilogy will end!!!

anyone? yea? maybe? no? okay :/
zachshivey - 6/26/2012, 1:24 AM
Oh snap....I hope she is Ra's wife.
zachshivey - 6/26/2012, 1:48 AM
I agree with you guys too....I've been waiting for this ending since 2008....I was hoping for a 2011 release haha
Durf - 6/26/2012, 1:55 AM
Does make sense, and would be cool to see. And yes, she is hot.

@JDUKE: lol, some great stuff!
thewonderer - 6/26/2012, 2:09 AM
@fanboydemands

Taken also symbolically just means they were killed. As in their lives
were taken from him.
prototype87 - 6/26/2012, 3:37 AM
driver - 6/26/2012, 4:04 AM
Damn! That video stops when Neeson said: Rub your chest!
skidz - 6/26/2012, 4:06 AM
I bet everything Bane does is partially to avenge Ra's al Ghul's death and then to finish what he started.
DarthBob - 6/26/2012, 4:35 AM
Who cares, this movie is going to monumentally suck!
SUPERSHADOWBAT - 6/26/2012, 5:18 AM
@RobertGarlen, that same thought crossed my mind. The description of mother, may mean that she is Damian's mother. Hmmm.
PeterParker1991 - 6/26/2012, 5:51 AM
Ra's said his wife was taken from him. Never mentioned a daughter
bestintheworld - 6/26/2012, 6:03 AM
I'm betting she's Bane's mother, giving birth to him in prison. "Born and raised in hell on Earth."
SkywayTraffic - 6/26/2012, 6:27 AM
I like the spoiler warning when the biggest spoiler was in the title.
EarOne - 6/26/2012, 6:56 AM
man, she's hot. actually i wanna d- her right f***ing NOW.
coderaven - 6/26/2012, 6:56 AM
no question, Banes mother in prison.
Supes17 - 6/26/2012, 7:16 AM
@RamonSuarez:
It's not like ra's is Chines or Black....
The guy is Arab... Liam looks Arabic enough for the role... So does Cotillard. Think about it, if most Arabs spoke fluent Spanish they would pass for Spaniards..

Funny thing is, they spent 700 years in Spain, greatly contributing to their culture...

But yeah, he looks white, but close enough to be Arabic
Sanderman - 6/26/2012, 7:38 AM
Bet Bane killed Ra's wife and result with him being kicked out of the League for being to "extreme" I mean he was born and raised in a prison afterall
MJPETTY7 - 6/26/2012, 7:41 AM
Could they make Bane Ra's al Ghuls' son and have her be Bane AND Talia's mother making Bane want to destroy Batman for killing his father while Talia deals with Bruce Wayne? Just a thought...
CherryBomb - 6/26/2012, 7:41 AM
It may be sooo expected if Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) is revealed to be Talia who befriended and seduced Bruce to gain control of the company and kill Batman as revenge ... BUT, it would be the best twist ever. EVER.

it best happen Nolan. Or else!


& MAYBE India is playing a teenage Talia Al Ghul ... she does have a similar look to Joey King.
DCfan89 - 6/26/2012, 8:54 AM
She's got to be Talia... want her to be Talia!! and if Ra's isn't returning in this film, then why all the emphasis on his life and backstory. can't all be for Bane. Ra's RISES
Steping - 6/26/2012, 9:14 AM
Scabsallover - 6/26/2012, 9:23 AM
Yeah, I still don't believe Joey King is young Talia Al Ghul. I think she's the little girl who drowns in Venom.
Tajin88 - 6/26/2012, 10:42 AM




ElDuce74 - 6/26/2012, 10:54 AM
Here's an idea, has it ever been considered that Bane was one of the League of Shadows that was there when Bruce burned down the temple? Maybe he was injured and to relieve his pain he has to wear the mask/anesthesia? In a way, Batman would have created Bane and now it's coming back full circle. batman would have to deal with the repercussions of his actions. Think back at what was said in Dark Knight that when Batman came, the criminals got stranger, or something to that effect. Basically, Batman is creating this through his actions. Just a thought.

There is no point in showing Liam in a flashback unless they are concentrating on the League era, at the time of Bruce Waynes introduction to them. It seems like most of the backstory on him can be covered under the younger actor and showing Talia as a child and the mothers death.

Just a thought.
Nubase - 6/26/2012, 12:12 PM
@ElDuce74

l think your right, cos the nolan said that bane gets injured very early in the story, and we all know now that the whole trilogy is one big story so bane getting injured in the fire in batman begins makes sense and bane vowed vengence ever since but prepared himself in that time to take bruce down and finish the job that ras failed to do in the beginning
ElDuce74 - 6/26/2012, 12:12 PM
@Azazel1: Thanks man...It's just what I think when I hear about all of this coming "full circle". It would be a twist of sorts and we know how Nolan likes things like that. It also provides motive for Bane to come after Wayne, how he knows who he is, and the need to destroy Gotham like Ra's wanted to. The more I think about it, I think that's a definite possibility that Bane's roots are in the Begins time frame.
LoudNoises - 6/26/2012, 12:16 PM
In the comics isn't Bane born in a prison where he forced to live out a life sentence for the crimes of his father or something like that? It might be that Bane's father is responsible for the death of Ras Al Ghul's wife who I'm guess as @nailbiter pointed out is played by India Wadsworth. And Ras is responsible for The death of Bane's father and is the reason Bane is born into a miserable exsistance. Seems plausible.
TheFireRisesss - 6/26/2012, 12:30 PM
my theory is bane is prisoned in the leagues of shadows by ras al ghul for his father crimes nolan will use that. but if bane grows up that long in l.o.s prison he will know more than any other ninja how ras likes things being his prisoner. so i say at some point he will be apart of the l.o.s. bane knows he's the one ras should pick to lead his man. but ras ego wouldn't give him that much power from being my prisoner to leading my man noo. bane will see ras go out his way for bruce wayne that betrays ras and injure bane in that fire bruce started. bane goes on puts on a mask the leagues of shadows probably worshiped now men follow him.

those can give you all the reason to have bane starting his own growing up like that and learning from ras mistakes.

its simple bane will be like ras al ghul but smarter and better.
gothamwriter - 6/26/2012, 12:37 PM
firerisess i agree with you i had no problem with nolans ras al ghul character from batman begins besides why in the [frick] will he want bruce wayne to lead his men he should not be thinking about bruce wayne he should think about his daughter to lead the men or someone who growed up in the leagues of shadows. .BANE. THE MASKED MAN THAT NO ONE CARED WHO HE WAS UNTIL HE PUT ON THE MASK. no one cared who he was and thats what creates a neccassry evil.
thewonderer - 6/26/2012, 12:50 PM
Nolan has a very incredible way of actually making everything that occurs in his films accurate to the comics WITH the changes he makes.

Realize Bruce Wayne was found in a prison in Batman Begins. This leads me to believe Ras finds his recruits in prisons. What better way to connect Ras and Bane but by Banes comic origin with Ras finding Bane in a prison after a life time sentence.

Ras wanted Bane to be his successor but he failed somehow (my guess is, the accident that gave Bane his facial injury). Ras then left Bane to die and went to look for someone else. Bane, angry, may have killed Ras' wife and Talia escaped somehow.

In this scenario, either Bane is currently pissed at Bruce for taking away Ras' death he deserved to take or pissed that he killed his master in general.

Talia will thus be divided because Bane leads the organization her father led but Bane killed her mother. Thus, making her side with Wayne
gothamwriter - 6/26/2012, 12:51 PM
the whole movie will be a mirror of batman begins in some many ways.

young bruce young rachel grow up together
young bane young talia grow up together

ras use bruce the son of the waynes to destroy gotham
bane uses talia the daughter of ras to destroy gotham

Optimus83 - 6/26/2012, 1:28 PM
I love this Woman. ...
bestintheworld - 6/26/2012, 1:51 PM
Seeing other pictures of her, she is ridiculously hot. Well played Nolan, well played.
DukeAcureds - 6/26/2012, 3:53 PM
nails@ It's been a long time since I read Birth of the Demon, but I think that Ra's Al Ghul's wife in that is not Talia's mother. I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that she died a long time before Talia was born. Like a long time.
Here's another way of looking at it:
Miranda Tate is not Talia, but Nyssa and India Wadsworth's character is Talia. Furthermore the "Mother" thing could refer to her being the mother of Damien Wayne and this could be the main reason for Nolan setting this film 8 years into future. If Bruce and Talia concieved Damien during Bruce's training in Batman Begins then he would be about 13/ 14 in The Dark Knight Rises. Maybe it's even that kid that JGL is talking to in the trailer.
DukeAcureds - 6/26/2012, 3:54 PM
Y'know what? I think I'm onto something there. ^ ^ ^
mgeoff88 - 6/26/2012, 4:25 PM
She is beautiful. And she does even look similar to Marion Cotillard.

I hope Talia Al Ghul we'll have enough screen time so they can really develop her character in this.

The character is such an important part of Batman's mythos. I don't want her to be rushed.
balegirlbrazil - 6/26/2012, 4:45 PM
@DukeAcureds

What the hell did you smoke??
India is not playing Talia,this is the most stupid idea I´ve ever read.
Miranda Tate is Talia.
And India is playing Talia´s mother,because she looks like Marion Cotillard and also Joey King.
Case closed!
NO WAY India is Talia and Marion is Nyssa.
NO WAY!

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