Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard will star in The Dark Knight Rises, but not as who you think

Christopher Nolan has officially signed up his Inception play-pals Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt for roles in The Dark Knight Rises, ending months of rumors that they would be joining the production. But it wouldn’t be a Dark Knight-related announcement if there wasn’t some complete nullifying of any and all fan speculation: Contrary to what many have assumed, Cotillard and Gordon-Levitt will not be playing Talia Al Ghul or Alberto Falcone, respectively. Rather, Cotillard will star as “Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham,” while Gordon-Levitt will play “John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon.” So there.

Of course, neither of these characters currently exist in the Batman mythology (that we know of), which has led many to suspect that Nolan is engaging in a bit of purposeful misdirection here, and that either or both characters could turn out to be someone more familiar—such as “Tate” being an alias for Talia Al Ghul, much as Liam Neeson’s Ra’s Al Ghul used “Henri Ducard” in Batman Begins. So actually, we take it back. Nolan has just guaranteed that Dark Knight speculation will continue right up until the film is actually released, which is pretty damn clever.