On Saturday, the boys and I recorded our third episode of the podcast (by the way, the 2nd one will be posted online this week as well). I’ve noticed that while we try to vary subjects each episode, one thing we keep going back to is… Batman. Whether the animated series, the Nolan films, the video games or the atrocious Batman and Robin, the Caped Crusader gets mentioned a lot on the Just Plain Podcast. In my defense, between the Arkham Asylum sequel and the last Nolan film, there’s a lot of news coming out about Batman. Funnily enough, the day after we recorded the podcast, a new big nugget of news came out about The Dark Knight Rises.

Warner Bros.

We’ve been hearing this rumor for almost a year – pretty much since the first Inception trailer – and it grew stronger after the mindbending Christopher Nolan film came out. This weekend, Gordon-Levitt announced that he would indeed be in The Dark Knight Rises as Alberto Falcone, the son of deposed mob boss Carmine Falcone (played in Batman Begins by Tom Wilkinson).

At the very least, including the son of the (one of the) original antagonist will help tie the third and final film to the first. However, in The Long Halloween, Alberto was revealed to be a villain in his own right. He’s actually Holiday, a serial killer who murders on different holidays and leaves themed tokens (not to be confused with the ridiculous Batman villain Calendar Man, who has a similar MO but is far sillier in appearance and tone). Holiday is one of the most realistic of the Batman villians, which fits Nolan’s previous films. Gordon-Levitt has proven he can do action scenes after the hallway scene in Inception, so I’m excited to see him take on Batman. And the Falcone mob family has been integral in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, so his inclusion doesn’t feel out of left field.

Looking up some Batman sites online, I also discovered the comics have hinted that Selina Kyle (Catwoman) is actually Carmine Falcone’s daughter. Since Anne Hathaway is playing Selina in the film, that means these antagonists could have shared plot-points instead of separate stories. This was one of the big problems with Spiderman 3… too many plots, too many villains and none of them fleshed out enough. I’m thinking Alberto will have a smaller role compared to Bane and Selina, with most of the role focused on his and Selina’s relationship as brother and sister.

I admit, the thought of three villains makes me very weary thanks to the Spiderman 3 conundrum, but Christopher Nolan hasn’t disappointed me yet. And the film will be the end of this series, so I think we can at least know that the filmmakers want to wrap things up and bring it full circle – no fooling around.

The film is set to be released July 20, 2012.

EDIT: Apparently there is a rumor circulating that this announcement is false. I’ll let you know when I know what’s actually going on.

UPDATE: His actual role has been announced. You can read about it HERE.