NERD ALERT.. If you lack nerdyness.  Just stop.

Production is about to begin on The Dark Knight Rises and the rumors are aplenty! Tabloids, (il)legitimate websites, and magazines around the planet all claim to know who has been cast and where the story is going; the worst rumors stating that Eddie Murphy would be Riddler and Shia LaGay would be Robin. I thought I would take this opportunity to interpret the facts and speculate with the rumors as to who will play what and what we might see. I would like to warn that there is a slight chance I could be right and spoilers may be ahead! What makes me better than everyone else on this topic you ask? Well, in the months following The Dark Knight I predicted we would see Catwoman based on what it would bring to the table. So I’m kind of good at this.

When we last saw our heroes, and villains, things were a bit messy! Bruce Wayne is dealing with the death of his lifelong love Rachel (played by a sad turtle), Harvey Dent killed some people and died, Batman took the blame for the killings and killed Harvey Two-Face himself, and (despite knowing the truth) Gordon must pursue The Batman. Yikes! Let’s quickly set two things in stone: Two-Face is dead and Joker isn’t coming back. (Going back and editing this over the past several days I have to include that Aaron Eckhart [who plays Two-Face] has teased that he may return, scratch that one then)

With Bruce emotionally scarred after Rachel’s death it only makes sense to bring in another female lead to challenge his feelings and who has a better dynamic than Batman/Catwoman-Bruce/Selina? Batman stops crimes, so far committed by dudes, and Catwoman is a hot chick, so that’s new! Catwoman also has a good side to her so that appeals to Batman’s humanity and he is always torn with his thoughts on her. See Batman Returns for more info on this dynamic. Anne Hathaway is confirmed to play Catwoman.

Now here is where it gets tricky because there are several rumors stating that Inception star (the chick with the accent) Marion Cotillard is up for a roll in DKR which would play to Director Chris Nolan’s trademark use of the same actors in his movies; but, who could she play? Well I think it’s obvious (Since the character AND actor have similar accents) that she would be Talia Al Goul, daughter of Batman Begins nemesis Ras Al Goul, which would connect the beginning and end of the trilogy. On top of the connection, Talia Al Goul is another love interest of Bruce Wayne! Are we gonna see a cat fight for Bruce’s affections? I kind of hope not.

What about the primary villain? Well that’s where this party gets interesting due to everyone wanting a big name villain to complete this whole epic story and rumors have been calling for the Riddler! On top of that another rumor says that Inception star (seeing a connection here?) Joseph Levitt is going to be in this movie and right off the Bat (see what I did there?) everyone says he’s the Riddler! Don’t get me wrong, I would like to see that BUT I think this could go into a different direction. Queue in Inception star (again) Tom Hardy who has been confirmed to play the not-so-huge-villain but HUGE villain BANE! I predict that we will see Bane as never before, and by that I mean real physical proportions. Tom himself has stated that his putting on 30 pounds of muscle for the roll. Why Bane? Well he has one feat that no other villain has: He broke the Batman in half, literally broke his back! Anyone seeing a link yet? Last Batman movie with Nolan…Bane as the villain… Yeah, this could happen. Which brings me to Joseph Levitt.

If the Batman is indeed removed from action by the end of the movie then we will need someone to fill the mantle of the Bat, if only for studio sequel’s sake. Now, Nolan has stated that Robin will not show up and I like that! But, what about Nightwing? Or, even more interesting, Terry McGinnis; aka Batman Beyond. Batman/Bruce might be left in pieces but he still will try to protect his beloved city and that’s where Terry/Batman Beyond could come into play… I think leaving this door open with Levitt would be the twist Nolan could sneak on us. Or Joseph could be a 20minute filler villain like the Riddler… Yes I’m getting a bit crazy with this one since, to again play on the connection to the first movie that Nolan said would happen, Levitt would most likely be Falcone’s son.

If you ask me, were seeing too many actors in this movie and they can’t play small parts so we could see another Xmen3/Spiderman3 and that scares the hell out of me! Time will tell what happens but just remember: If my predictions come to pass then you saw it here first on THIS HOT FIRE!!!