Just last week, we brought you an interview with Morgan Freeman (Red) where he spoke about the villains for Christopher Nolan‘s impending follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2008 film, The Dark Knight. The actor talked about his personal preference for Catwoman and the possibilities of The Riddler or Philip Seymour Hoffman playing The Penguin.

Now, Deadline reports that Tom Hardy (Inception) will reunite with director Christopher Nolan for Batman 3. While Hardy’s exact role is unknown, they say that it will be a “lead role”, and speculated that it would be a “reasonable assumption” that Hardy is gearing up to play one of DC Comics‘ iconic villains.

Christopher Nolan‘s as yet Untitled Batman Project is slated to hit theaters on July 20th, 2012.