It's strange that over a month after The Dark Knight blew the roof off the box office, all discussion of the sequel is purely theoretical. Chris Nolan is a crafty guy to be able to turn in that kind of movie and then go on vacation, leaving the rest of us to speculate about the sequel's casting when not a single contract has been signed.

Harvey Dent has been part of that speculation in some corners, for those who believe he may not have died at the end of The Dark Knight, but Aaron Eckhart is putting an end to the speculation in an interview with AICN : "I'm dead. I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth. "Hey, Chris, am I--?" "No. You're dead. You're dead."

Eckhart also used my new favorite colloquialism to describe Nolan's way of seeing The Dark Knight as a standalone effort: The Dark Knight]. All the vegetables were in this stew." But one vegetable that might have made another appearance, Eckhart suggests, was Heath Ledger. " I think Heath was the one that was going to come back. And since he can't..."

I adored Eckhart in Dark Knight, and I was definitely one of the crackpots who were conjuring up a way for Harvey Dent to return. But, as he says, there's room for lots more villains to make their way into a third film-- just as soon as Christopher Nolan decides to go swimming in the pool of money Warner Bros. has set up for him.