Fans have waited patiently as director Christopher Nolan took his break from Batman after The Dark Knight and made a little movie called Inception. The director did the same thing after Batman Begins with The Prestige, and this is just the way of Nolan’s world.

But now that Inception has indeed come and gone, everyone is getting pretty anxious for things to get going on the next chapter in the DC Comic superhero’s dark new story, currently just being referred to as Batman 3. And today it would appear that our first casting has occurred.

It’s being reported that Tom Hardy has been cast by Nolan for a major role in the next Batman. Unfortunately for us, it hasn’t been revealed what exactly this role will be, or even if it’s a villain or not. This is already starting to become an unpleasant new Hollywood habit, as we just saw with the casting Kevin Bacon as an unknown villain in X-Men: First Class and with Rhys Ifans as an unidentified villain in Spider-Man. Before we know it, every big casting will come with massive questions of who they’re playing in the movie they’ve been cast in.

Hardy has been around for a while, but has only recently been making a big name for himself. You can go back even as far as Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, where the actor played Twombley, but it’s been turns in movies like Rocknrolla, Bronson, and of course Inception that have his name on fire. Hardy was also cast as the new Mad Max in George Miller’s fourth film in the franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road, but complications currently have that project on halt.

So now, once again, we must figure out who Tom Hardy could be playing in Batman 3. Could he be the Riddler everyone has talked so much about? Or will he just be a regular supporting character? I’ve personally been pretty stubborn about wanting Paul Bettany for the Riddler, but Hardy is not too far off for that preference, so I’d be good with it. Others who have been screaming for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Riddler might not be too thrilled.

All we can do is wait impatiently. Expect castings and Batman information to start picking up speed now.

[Source: Deadline]