- Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman:A billionaire socialite who dedicates himself to protecting Gotham City from its criminal underworld, as a feared vigilante. Nolan has stated that, due to the eight-year gap between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, "he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state."[7] Bale employed a martial arts discipline called the Keysi Fighting Method, now modified for Wayne's current state and Bane's style.[8] Bale has stated that The Dark Knight Rises would be his final Batman film.[9] Bale acknowledged that Batman is "not a healthy individual, this is somebody that is doing good, but he's right on the verge of doing bad".[10] Bale clarifies that "He doesn't want to forget [his parents' deaths]. He wants to maintain that anger he felt at that injustice".[11] Bale felt bittersweet about leaving the franchise, saying that it was like "saying goodbye to an old friend."[12]
- Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth:[13]Bruce's trusted butler and confidant, who acts as a father figure to Wayne but is unable to accept Wayne's desire to revive his Batman persona, even resigning from his position to impress the seriousness of his position upon him. Christopher Nolan emphasized the emotional bond between Pennyworth and Wayne, stressing its importance in the previous films and predicting that the relationship will be strained as it never has before.[8]
- Gary Oldman as James Gordon:[13]The Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department, and one of the city's few honest police officers. Oldman described the character's work in cleaning up Gotham City as having left him world-weary and slightly bored,[14] likening Gordon to a soldier who leaps at the chance to be on the front lines.[8] His life has taken a turn for the worse since The Dark Knight; his wife has left him and taken their children, and the mayor is planning to dismiss him from his job. Gordon feels guilty over his role in covering up Harvey Dent's crimes and is prepared to resign from his position as Commissioner over it, but then senses that Gotham is about to come under threat.
- Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle / Catwoman:[15][16]A professional cat burglar, grifter, and femme fatale who establishes a playful, teasing relationship with Wayne that "takes some of the somberness away from his character",[8] and pursues a "clean slate" (a computer program rumored to be able to erase a person's criminal history) when she crosses paths with both Wayne and Batman. Hathaway auditioned not knowing what role she was being considered for.[17] Jessica Biel was considered for the role.[18] Hathaway described the role as being the most physically demanding she had ever played, and confessed that while she thought of herself as being fit, she had to redouble her efforts in the gym to keep up with the demands of the role.[19][20] Hathaway trained extensively in martial arts for the role, and looked to Hedy Lamarr—who was the initial inspiration for the comic book character—in developing her own performance.[21] Batman Begins and The Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer had previously ruled out in 2008 including Catwoman in a third film for having already appeared in Tim Burton's Batman Returns, portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer.[22]
- Tom Hardy as Bane:[15]A mysterious and physically imposing villain who was excommunicated from the League of Shadows and portrays himself as a "liberator of pain" and revolutionary. He is desperate to continue Ra's al Ghul's legacy by destroying Gotham. The character was chosen by Christopher Nolan because of his desire to see Batman tested on both a physical and mental level.[7][23] According to costume designer Lindy Hemming, the character wears a mask that supplies him with an analgesic gas to relieve pain he suffers from an injury sustained "early in his story".[7] Hardy intended to portray the character as "more menacing" than Robert Swenson's version of the character in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin and that in order to do so, his portrayal entailed creating a contradiction between his voice and body. Hardy gained 30 pounds (14 kg) for the role,[24] increasing his weight to 200 pounds (90 kg).[24] Hardy based Bane's voice on several influences, which include Bartley Gorman and the character's comic book heritage.[25][26] Bane claims that his revolution's enemies are the rich and the corrupt, who he contends are oppressing "the people", when in reality this was a ruse in order to exploit the citizens of Gotham City for the League of Shadows' ultimate goal in destroying Gotham City.
- Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate / Talia al Ghul:The current CEO of Wayne Enterprises who encourages a still-grieving Bruce to rejoin society and continue his father's philanthropic works but is later revealed to be the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and Bane's accomplice. Cotillard also does her own dub-over voice in both the European and Canadian French dubs of the film.[27]
- Joey King as young Talia al Ghul[28]
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake:A young police officer whose instincts lead him to believe that there is trouble on the horizon and is promoted to detective by Gordon when the elder cop saw something of himself within the younger.[27] Blake represents the idealism that Gordon and Bruce Wayne once held, but soon lost in their battle against crime in the city.[8] The film reveals his legal name to be Robin John Blake, an homage to Batman's sidekick in the comics, Robin.[29]
- Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox:[13] The ex-CEO turned executive vice president of Wayne Enterprises, who runs the company on Wayne's behalf and serves as his armorer for the Batsuit, providing him with high-tech equipment and discreetly developing cutting-edge technology and weaponry, even as Wayne Enterprises starts losing money.
- Matthew Modine as Peter Foley: Gordon's second-in-command who disdains Batman.[30]
- Ben Mendelsohn as John Daggett: A rival billionaire socialite who employs Bane in his plan to take control of Wayne Enterprises.
- Burn Gorman as Philip Stryver: Daggett's assistant and senior executive vice president of Daggett Industries.[31] Philip Stryver is named after Stryver from A Tale of Two Cities, the novel that The Dark Knight Rises directly drew influence from.
- Nestor Carbonell as Anthony Garcia: Gotham City's mayor. Carbonell reprises his role from The Dark Knight.[32]
- Juno Temple as Jen: Selina Kyle's friend and accomplice.[33]
- Josh Stewart as Barsad: Bane's right-hand man.[34]
- Alon Aboutboul as Dr. Leonid Pavel: A Russian nuclear physicist who is kidnapped by Bane and the League of Shadows in order to convert a fusion reactor funded by Bruce Wayne and Miranda Tate into a weapon to be used for the destruction of Gotham City.[35]
- Aidan Gillen as Bill Wilson:[36][37] A CIA operative who was tasked with extracting Pavel from Uzbekistan and tracking down Bane for terrorist activities before his appearance in Gotham City. (Bill is referred to solely as "CIA" in the film's dialogue; the character's name is revealed in the film's novelization.)[38]
- Brett Cullen portrays Byron Gilley, a U.S. congressman who is kidnapped by Kyle.[39] Brett Cullen would go on to portray Thomas Wayne in the 2019 DC Comics adaptation Joker.[40]
- Chris Ellis as Father Reilly, a priest at the orphanage that Blake grew up in.[39]
- Tom Conti as Prisoner: An unnamed prisoner who serves as Bruce Wayne's caretaker in Bane's underground prison, The Pit.
- Daniel Sunjata as Mark Jones, a U.S. Special Ops officer who leads a task force into Gotham to assist Gordon and the GCPD in freeing the city from Bane's rule.[31][41]
- Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul: Liam Neeson reprises his role from Batman Begins in a cameo appearance; he also appears in a brief flashback.[42][43]
- Josh Pence as young Ra's al Ghul. He appears in scenes set thirty years before the events of Batman Begins.[44]
- Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane: Cillian Murphy reprises his role from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.[45]
- India Wadsworth as the wife of Ra's al Ghul and the mother of Talia al Ghul.[46]
- John Nolan as Douglas Fredericks, a board member of Wayne Enterprises. John Nolan is Christopher Nolan's uncle and he reprises his role from Batman Begins.
- William Devane as the President of the United States.
Other cast members include Rob Brown, Will Estes and Desmond Harrington as police officers; Christopher Judge as one of Bane's henchmen;[47] and Noel Gugliemi as an ex-prisoner who is in charge of exiling corrupt elites during Bane's revolution. Thomas Lennon, who had appeared as a doctor in Nolan's 2000 film Memento, again plays a doctor.
United States Senator Patrick Leahy, who had made a cameo appearance in The Dark Knight, returned in The Dark Knight Rises,[48] as a Wayne Enterprises board member.
Several members of the Pittsburgh Steelers have cameo appearances as members of the fictional Gotham Rogues football team in the film, including Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, Troy Polamalu, Willie Colon, Maurkice Pouncey, Mike Wallace, Heath Miller, Aaron Smith, Ryan Clark, James Farrior, LaMarr Woodley, and Casey Hampton,[49][50] and former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher as the head coach of the Rogues.[51] Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl, a kicker in college, appears as the kicker for the Rogues' opponents, the Rapid City Monuments.[52]
Aaron Eckhart expressed enthusiasm in returning for a sequel if asked, although he later stated Nolan verified that his character, Harvey Dent / Two-Face, was dead,[53] and only archive footage of Eckhart from The Dark Knight appears in the film.[54]
