Remember a couple years ago when rumors were flying around that The Riddler would be the villain in Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film? It turns out they were partly true.

In Empire’s new issue, which has a feature on The Dark Knight Rises, screenwriter David Goyer claims Warner Bros. wanted Leonardo DiCaprio, who worked with Nolan in Inception, to play The Riddler.

Goyer said Warner Bros. said the following:

Obviously it’s gonna be The Riddler, and we want it to be Leonardo DiCaprio.

Now we know where that rumor came from. Someone from Warner Bros. must have leaked that out, not knowing that Nolan had a say in the story for the film and not Warner Bros. In fact, this should be an encouraging sign to people who are worried about the movie.

Nolan got to choose his villain (the most important part) and story. Anything the Brothers Warner suggested was probably taken with a grain of salt. It is interesting that they wanted DiCaprio to play The Riddler though. They must have thought that the only way to build the excitement that The Dark Knight had with Heath Ledger’s Joker was to go with a huge movie star as the villain.

Leo is great and all, but Tom Hardy as Bane sounds like a better fit than DiCaprio as The Riddler. [Empire via Batman On Film]

leonardo dicaprio, the dark knight rises, the riddler