The Dark Knight

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Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman: A billionaire who has dedicated himself to protecting Gotham City from the criminal underworld as the "Dark Knight", he is the film's continuing hero. Bale was confident in his choice to return in the role because of the positive response to his performance in Batman Begins.[citations needed] He trained in the Keysi Fighting Method, and performed many of his own stunts. He did not gain as much muscle this time, because of the storyline in which Batman builds a new suit that allows him to move with more agility.

The actor described Batman's dilemma as whether "[his crusade is] something that has an end? Can he quit and have an ordinary life? The kind of manic intensity someone has to have to maintain the passion and the anger that they felt as a child, takes an effort after awhile, to keep doing that. At some point, you have to exorcise your demons."[11] He added, "Now you have not just a young man in pain attempting to find some kind of an answer, you have somebody who actually has power, who is burdened by that power, and is having to recognize the difference between attaining that power and holding on to it." According to Dan Join, in Empire, Bale felt that because Batman's personality was strongly established in the first film, it was unlikely that his character would be overshadowed by the villains, stating: "I have no problem with competing with someone else. And that's going to make a better movie."

Heath Ledger as The Joker: Heath Ledger described the Joker as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy". Director Christopher Nolan had wanted to work with Ledger on a number of projects in the past, but had been unable to do so. When Ledger saw Batman Begins, he realized a way to make the character work in that film's tone, and Nolan agreed with his anarchic interpretation. To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice and psychology. While he initially found it difficult, Ledger was eventually able to generate a voice that did not sound like Jack Nicholson's take on the character in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film. He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance. He was also given Batman: The Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth to read, which he "really tried to read [...] and put it down". Ledger also cited inspirations such as A Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious, which were "a very early starting point for Christian [Bale] and I. But we kind of flew far away from that pretty quickly and into another world altogether." "There's a bit of everything in him. There's nothing that consistent," Ledger said, adding that "There are a few more surprises to him."

Before Ledger was confirmed to play the Joker, in July 2006, Paul Bettany, Lachy Hulme, Adrien Brody, Steve Carell, and Robin Williams publicly expressed interest in the role. On not being invited to reprise the part, Jack Nicholson said: "You can't believe the reasons things do or don't happen. Not asking me how to do the sequel is that kind of thing. ... Maybe it's not a mistake. Maybe it was the right thing, but to be candid, I'm furious." After the first official trailer was released, director Guillermo del Toro and comic book writer Jeph Loeb praised Ledger's portrayal of the character, while Batman: The Animated Series co-creator Paul Dini said, "He seems more street than any other version of the Joker. ... His attitude is mordant and sardonic as opposed to manic. ... No goofy gags or puns for him. This Joker doesn't split sides: he splits skulls." Mark Hamill, who voiced the part on The Animated Series, said "The balls-out debauched psycho approach seems like a great way of reinventing everyone's favorite scary (and scar-y) clown."

After filming had already ended, Ledger died, on January 22, 2008, leading to intense press attention and memorial tributes. In March 2008, four months prior to the film's scheduled release in July, Larry Carroll reported that "like Batman himself, Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal and director Christopher Nolan find themselves shifting gears between being secretive, superheroic and fighting back a deep sadness." "It was tremendously emotional, right when he passed, having to go back in and look at him every day," Nolan recalled. "But the truth is, I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish." Nolan has dedicated the film to Ledger's memory.

Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent / Two-Face: The Gotham district attorney; Dent's battle with the Joker turns Dent into a murderous disfigured vigilante called "Two-Face". Producer Charles Roven described Dent as initially the "white knight of the city".[32] Wayne sees Dent as his heir, which comes back to the theme of him realizing that being Batman will be a lifelong mission, and the tragedy that follows when Dent is corrupted. Whereas Two-Face is an evil villain in the comics, Nolan chose to portray him as a twisted vigilante to emphasize his role as Batman's counterpart, and Eckhart, who has played corrupt men in films such as The Black Dahlia, Thank You For Smoking and In the Company of Men, notes: " He is still true to himself. He's a crime fighter, he's not killing good people. He's not a bad guy, not purely," while admitting: "I'm interested in good guys gone wrong." Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer had originally considered using Dent in Batman Begins, but they replaced him with the new character Rachel Dawes when they realized they "couldn't do him justice".Before Eckhart was cast in February 2007, Liev Schreiber, Josh Lucas, and Ryan Phillippe had expressed interest in the role. Nolan chose Eckhart, whom he had considered for the lead role in Memento, citing his "extraordinary" ability as an actor, his embodiment of "that kind of chiselled, American hero quality" projected by Robert Redford, and his subtextual "edge".

Maggie Gyllenhaal as assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes: A childhood friend of Bruce Wayne, she is one of the few people who know that he is Batman. Gyllenhaal has acknowledged that her character is a damsel in distress to an extent, adding that Nolan had sought ways to empower her character so that "Rachel's really clear about what's important to her and unwilling to compromise her morals, which made a nice change" from the many conflicted characters whom she has previously portrayed. In August 2005, before the casting of Gyllenhaal, producer Charles Roven had reported that actress Katie Holmes (who portrays Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins) was going to play the role of Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight; however, in January 2007, Holmes turned down the offer to reprise her role as Rachel Dawes due to scheduling conflicts, and, by March 2007, Gyllenhaal was in "final talks" for the part.