Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Dark Knight Rises character revealed

Since Joseph Gordon-Levitt's name was linked to The Dark Knight Rises , there has been a ton of speculation surrounding which character he'll play.

It has finally been announced by Variety (via WorstPreviews) that Inception actor J G-L has been cast as Alberto Falcone in Christopher Nolan's feverishly-anticipated trilogy closer.

Alberto is the son of mob boss Carmine Falcone, played by Tom Wilkinson in Batman Begins .

Gary Oldman has previously mentioned in a interview that Rises will round off Nolan's Bat-story, and bring it all back to Begins , and this character announcement certainly seems to validate those claims.

Nolan will undoubtedly keep the plot details tightly under wraps until the film is released, but Alberto had an interesting role to play in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's The Long Halloween (spoilers for that comic follow…)

In that storyline, Alberto was revealed to be the Holiday Killer, a murderer who had been taking various people out on significant holidays throughout the year.

It's hard to guess whether this is something Nolan plans to bring into the film, but it seems more plausible that Alberto will be used as a vengeful son figure, considering how Carmine ended up in Batman Begins .

It'll also be a neat link back to the death of Bruce Wayne's parents, and Carmine's involvement with that incident.

Hopefully this announcement should also diminish the persistent, irksome rumour that Robin will be appearing in this installment…

This news has done little to quell our excitement for The Dark Knight Rises , which is due for release on 20 July 2012.

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.