He has consistently said that he didn't make this movie with a third one in mind, and that he put in this everything he ever wanted to see in a Batman movie. That doesn't mean he had no ideas for a third movie (obviously he intended The Joker to be in it), but he didn't make The Dark Knight as a lead-in to Batman III, he made it to be its own movie.

Yeah, I'd agree. I had a discussion with someone after I read this news tidbit and you can tell Nolan pretty much had it as a film on its own. I mean you could easily sit down and watch TDK without seeing Begins - that's partially what brought it to it's $1 Billion gross last year. Out of all the people that I knew saw out, not one other person besides me had even seen Begins. So I can see that.