Batman fans have been treated to a sneak peek of the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy.
A trailer for Dark Knight Rises has just been released onto the internet - and it's already creating plenty of buzz.
The trailer begins with a young boy hauntingly singing the national anthem at a football game and ends with terror engulfing the stadium, hinting at the fear and violence in store for Gotham City.
Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne and his alter ego Batman while Anne Hathaway makes her debut as Selina Kyle, also know as Catwoman.
She makes her first appearance in the trainer at masquerade ball and foreshadows danger.
'A storm is coming, Mr. Wayne,' she warns. 'And you and your friends better batten down the hatches.'
A masked Tom Hardy makes a terrifying arrival on the scene as the evil Bane.
While some fans who watched the prologue in IMAX cinemas over the weekend complained that the character's voice is too muffled, he is undoubtedly frightening.
'He’s brutal, brutal. He’s expedient delivery of brutality,' Hardy told Empire magazine recently.
'He’s a big dude who’s incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and orientated fighting style. The result is clear.'
But Hardy didn't stop there when it came to explaining the fictional character's violent persona.
'The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it’s nasty,' he added.
'Anything from small joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns. It’s anything he can get away with.'
Hardy was hand-picked for the role by director, Christopher Nolan, and it's clear to see why.
The actor is definitely enthusiastic about the role and was even dismissive of the 12 certificate that the film has been given.
'I’m not approaching it with a 12-certificate attitude,' he told the film magazine.
'If we’re going to shoot somebody, shoot the pregnant woman or the old lady first. Make sure everybody stands up. And listens.
'He is a terrorist in his mentality as well as brutal action. So he’s horrible. A really horrible piece of work.
'It’s not about fighting. It’s just about carnage with Bane. He’s a smashing machine. He’s a wrecking ball.'
The comic book character was a child born and raised within the walls of a harsh prison in a fictional Caribbean country, Santa Prisca.
Bane was transformed into a fearsome, hulking man-machine via a physique-enhancing intravenous drug called Venom and his most celebrated storyline is Knightfall, in which he snaps Batman’s spine like a dry twig.
'With Bane, we are looking to give Batman a physical challenge that he hasn’t had before,' said Nolan.
With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we’re testing Batman both physically as well as mentally.
'Bane's a great sort of movie monster, but with an incredible brain, and that was a side of him that hadn’t been tapped before.'
Hardy and actor, Christian Bale who plays Batman, were pictured filming a fight scene in Pittsburgh earlier this year which saw Hardy suffer from a wardrobe malfunction when his trousers ripped down the side.
The pair were fighting on the steps of Gotham City Hall amongst many extras dressed as policemen, and this posed a problem for Hardy.
'When you’re training in a rehearsal room you go, "Okay, I have a contact with seven people,"' he said.
'This guy I chin, this one I slip and I punch, this one I pick up and suplex, this guy I kick in the face, and this one, he stops a hammer with his head. And then I meet Batman.
'That’s all alright in a rehearsal room, but then you add 1,000 people that are all dressed the same as the seven you’re supposed to hit - because they’re all police officers — and I don’t know where my police officers are. But the stuntmaster’s like, "Don’t worry. They will find you."'
However Nolan has no regrets about casting Hardy in his third Batman film.
'He’s found a way to play a character who is enormous and powerful with a sort of calm to it, but also is able to be incredibly fast at times. Unpredictable.
'It’s a very powerful thing when you see it come together, beyond what I had ever imagined. That’s what you get from working with great actors.'
The Dark Knight Rises will be released in the US and UK in July.
