Could Killer Croc be a Villain in BATMAN 3?

The list of proposed villains for the third Batman movie has increased by one more as of late. Killer Croc is the latest addition to the rumor mill which has seen the likes of Catwoman, Penguin, Riddler and Talia al Ghoul being some of the biggest.

Back in August, Pietro Filipponi reported that Warner Bros was planning on filming parts of Christopher Nolan's Batman three-quel in New Orleans, Louisiana; the location just used as production headquarters for another superhero adaptation, Green Lantern. Executives from the studio wish to take advantage of the monumental tax incentives the city has to offer for their expensive projects, since it would allow better use of the projected $200 million budget for the film. ComingSoon.net confirmed that the studio is prepping to shoot the yet to be titled Bat-film in The Big Easy around the same time frame.

Can there be more to New Orleans shooting locations than just tax incentives? Many sites have proposed that Killer Croc could be one of the villains to take on Batman. With the great bayous and swamps there as a natural locale, Croc would seem an easy fit. As for who first broke this story? Batman-News.com seems to be one of the earliest with SlashFilm going a little more in depth.

The rumor is largely based on two twitter postings from Mark Millar a few days ago:

Oh, wait. Con gossip: I know who the villain(s) are in Batman 3 and the big scene outside Gotham sounds awesome. Totally timely locale.

One of the villains is from my favourite childhood run on the character. Again, very unexpected.

Millar has been one to tell a tall tale or two and certainly loves publicity thrown his way so quotes from him should always be taken with a note of caution. Killer Croc was introduced in 1983 which puts Millar at the age of 13 when he came out and fits in the scheme of things.

For those unfamiliar with the character, here is a small profile from Batman.Wikia:

Waylon Jones, is a criminal and nemesis of Batman. He was born with a medical condition called "Epidermolytic Hyperkeratosis", it caused him to grow progressively more like a crocodile, hence his name. He has low intelligence but great strength, as well as crocodilian abilities, such as a keen sense of smell and the ability to hold his breath underwater for long periods of time.

While many discount that Chris Nolan would put such an outlandish character in his "realistic" movies, there are some things to consider. Croc has had many different characterizations over the years with Brian Azzarello's version in the graphic novel Joker being one of the more "realistic" incarnations. He is just a very large criminal (possibly cannibalistic) with a strange skin ailment backing up the Joker as muscle. Another version of Croc comes from one of the Batman: Gotham Knight segments; an anime style movie which was written by the scibe of all three Nolan Batman films, David Goyer.

There are many factors here that do point towards the possibility but at this point it is just a large rumor. As the next Batman film is set to begin production between March and April 2011, answers should hopefully be forthcoming in the near future.