Rumour: Is Robin Williams Dark Knight Rises' Hugo Strange?

File this one firmly under 'tantalising rumour' for the moment folks: could Robin Williams be set to play Hugo Strange in The Dark Knight Rises ?

Batman On Film stoked the rumour with a tweet, and Batman News claims to have a source who believes Strange will turn up in the new movie.

Rumours about the character's appearance in Christopher Nolan's threequel have been circulating for a while now, with Tom Hardy once believed to be playing the character (he's been confirmed as Bane now).

We're taking this one with a huge pinch of salt for now, although it's not entirely out of the realms of possibility.

For one thing, Williams has expressed interest in appearing as a Bat-villain several times in the past.

He's also worked with Nolan before, on Insomnia , when the director effectively tapped the funnyman's inherent creepiness to create a genuinely unsettling villain.

Hugo Strange is set to appear in the upcoming videogame Arkham City , so is this current rumour just fanboy wishful thinking?

With Nolan planning to make The Dark Knight Rises his final Batman movie, would he really want to introduce three new villains (Bane, Catwoman, Strange) into the mix as he's trying to wind down the trilogy?

That would be extremely ambitious to say the least, and one of the best things about Nolan's series so far is the way it has kept the focus on Batman/Bruce Wayne.

Or could Nolan surprise us all and continue with the franchise beyond the third movie? Maybe that's just wishful thinking on our part now…