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Given how great he was in Inception, this doesn’t exactly count as surprising news, but it’s still very welcome: according to Deadline, Christopher Nolan has recruited Tom Hardy for a major role in the next Batman film.

Before anyone hits the ‘net to scream “TOM HARDY IS THE RIDDLER!!!1!!” A WORD OF… Sorry, left the caps lock on there. A word of caution: there is zero information as to what his role might be, and only an insinuation that he’s playing a villain.

But while there’s zero confirmation on his part, feel free to go nuts with your guesses – would he make a good Riddler?
Is he taking on one of the other iconic characters from Bats’ rogues’ gallery?

Or could he be Robin? Kidding on that one. We hope…

Hardy, of course, has been shooting Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for Thomas Alfredson and he also has McG’s action comedy This Means War, alongside Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine, on his schedule. While we thought Nolan might try to factor him into the Bat-universe, there was always the lingering spectre of Mad Max: Fury Road in his future, but thanks to rain and a lot of flowers, that one has been pushed back.

As for Batman 3, all that we really know for sure is that Chris Nolan is definitely making the film (he told us himself) and that Jonah Nolan and David Goyer have been hard at work cranking out another script.

Batman is due to hit theaters in July 2012.