Josh Pence, who played a key, but thankless role in The Social Network in which his face was never shown, will portray Ra’s Al Ghul in a flashback sequence in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.  Pence played studdly upper cruster Tyler Winklevoss in The Social Network, but since his character was an identical twin, Armie Hammer’s face was electronically superimposed on Pence’s body.

But Pence, who recently wrapped up shooting on Universal’s big-budget Battleship movie, will get another real chance to strut his stuff in the new Batman film.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pence will play a young Ra’s Al Ghul, the villain who was portrayed by Liam Neeson in Batman Begins.  The sequence with Pence is a flashback that takes place 30 years prior to the main narrative of The Dark Knight Rises.

Pence joins a cast that includes Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Marion Cotillard, who reportedly will play Thalia Al Ghul, the daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul.