Despite memorial service in the film, many fans thought villain would return for 'Batman 3.'
By Shawn Adler

Aaron Eckhart in "The Dark Knight"
Photo: Warner Bros.
It's already the second-highest-grossing movie of all time, a gigantic cultural juggernaut that will soon break $500 million domestically. If you haven't seen "The Dark Knight" at least twice, well, you haven't really seen it at all. And, yet, for some people, the ending of the latest Batman film is still a complete and utter mystery, especially regarding the fate of Harvey "Two-Face" Dent, the villain played with such delicious glee by Aaron Eckhart.
(Massive spoilers ahead if you're one of the two cave-dwelling people in America who has yet to see "The Dark Knight.")
Does he die? Does he live? Even though he falls from a great height at the end of "Dark Knight," and even though there's a memorial service in his honor soon after, and even though it seems bloody obvious given Batman's sacrifice (can you tell which side we believe?), fan opinion on the matter has been bitterly divided. On MTV Movies Blog posts about potential "Batman 3" villains and themes, commenters argued back and forth over the matter, refusing to budge on what they think is right.
They might not have budged before, but now, like Dent himself, they have been pushed.
The script for the blockbuster sequel was made available for purchase on Tuesday and soon after found its way online. It's a long read at 167 pages, but fans looking for confirmation on the fate of Dent need only look at page 163.
"Dent lies at the bottom of the hole, his neck broken," the stage direction, written by brothers Jonathan and Christopher Nolan, reads. "DEAD." (Capital letters their emphasis, not ours.)
Although some already are arguing that because it refers to the character as "Dent" and not "Two-Face," it's possible the villain could make a return appearance, but Gotham's D.A. is always referred to as Dent throughout the script, even after his transformation.
Now that Dent is definitively dead, does it change fan opinion of the movie or mean something different for the franchise moving forward? Discuss with others on MTV's Splash Page blog.

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The nice thing about movies is that they can always bring back a character and make it work. I'd love to see Two-Face come back in another movie but it's really up to the producers.

I think they left it ambiguous for a reason. If they need Harvey in the next one, it'll be easy to bring him back. But if they DON'T, then at least his arc is complete.