Joseph Gordon Levitt And Marion Cotillard's Characters In The Dark Knight Rises Announced

Rumors have been floating around for months now about what characters actors Joseph Gordon Levitt and Marion Cotillard would be playing in Christopher Nolan's final installment to his Batman trilogy. Now after all those months of guessing, their characters have been announced, and they're not what you'd expect.

Joseph Gordon Levitt's rumors spanned from Batman's famous sidekick Robin, to gangster Carmine Falcone's son Alberto. But here is the following character and description that Levitt is confirmed to be playing:

John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon

Marion's character on the other hand wasn't really discussed much, because everyone assumed that it was perfectly obvious she would be playing Talia Al Gul, daughter of Ras Al Gul (Played by Liam Neeson in Batman Begins).

Just a week ago, when actor Josh Pence was confirmed to be playing a young Ras for TDKR, it seemed even more likely Cotillard's character was Talia, and could replace Rachael Dawes as Bruce Wayne/Batman's new love interest (Since she is a love interest in the comics). But it seems her character, like Levitt's, is being invented from scratch for the film as well. She's playing:

Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham.”

So it looks like neither character is actually a villain at all, or of any significance to the plot. Those who were freaking out because the film was getting flooded with actors can finally relax. but then again, Christopher Nolan is famous for misleading fans. For about three months, fans thought Killer Croc was the villain, yet they were completely off. So maybe one of these characters could actually based of a character from the books, just altered a bit and with different names.

What do you think off the new characters? Would you have preferred one of the characters they were being rumored to play?