Joseph Gordon-Levitt Joins ‘Dark Knight Rises’

Thanks to NIF

Inception star Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in talks to reunite with Christopher Nolan for the director’s third and final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises.

It’s unclear what role Gordon-Levitt will play in the film, though he has been rumored in connection with the threequel sincelast summer.  However, Nolan struck down Internet rumors that the Riddler would appear in the film, as well as any notion that the Joker would make a return without the late Heath Ledger.  The oft-rumored Hugo Strange is also a possibility, though details of the character’s involvement are pure speculation at this point.

Anne Hathaway has already been confirmed as Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman) and Gordon-Levitt’s Inception co-star Tom Hardy is playing the musclebound baddie Bane.  A third villain isn’t out of the question, but would certainly complicate the plot as Nolan is building to a finale.

Another option would be Dick Grayson, a young circus performer orphaned by a mafia boss and taken in by Bruce Wayne (played by Christian Bale).  In the comics, television series, and the 1995 movie Batman & Robin, Grayson ultimately becomes Robin, Batman’s crime-fighting sidekick.  Gordon-Levitt certainly has the chops to play the “Boy Wonder,” but both Nolan and Bale have downplayed the possibility of introducing Robin into this gritty Gotham.  (Nolan said Grayson was in a “crib somewhere” during The Dark Knight.)  Does that rule out Nightwing?

Shooting starts this Spring and, according to Deadline, the 29-year-old actor will have completed his starring role in Rian Johnson’s Looper, a sci-fi time travel film with Bruce Willis that should hopefully be on everyone’s radar by now.

The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled for July 2012.