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SALT LAKE CITY -- It's been three years since anyone has heard from Bruce Wayne or the colorful company he surrounds himself with. After his last adventure, "The Dark Knight," which grossed over a billion dollars worldwide, Christopher Nolan, current director of the franchise, promised fans that he would revisit the Batman universe one last time before calling it quits.
This week, fans of the series got a first glimpse of the final chapter at Apple.com.
"When Gotham is ashes," the film's villain, Bane, says to a very injured Bruce Wayne, "then you have my permission to die."
Nothing about the new trailer suggests a happy ending for the caped crusader. While the last film focused on the Joker's efforts to untangle the inner workings of Gotham, marketing for "The Dark Knight Rises" suggests a blunt, physical, sledgehammer approach to finally doing away with Gotham's shadowy hero.
"Do the final scenes in 'The Dark Knight Rises' put a definitive end to the series?" Josh Horowitz of MTV News asked actor Gary Oldman, who plays Commissioner Gordon in the trilogy.
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After an uncomfortably long pause, Oldman said, "There's a conclusion. (Nolan) touches on the first (film), he weaves it in, and it resolves, and it feels like a trilogy. But, it's just great. The story is terrific; it's just epic."
With the film currently slated for July of 2012, fans have a few months to wait before they can see how it all ends. Until then, expect to see a few more trailers, a boatload of rumors and a healthy heap of grumblings from fans skeptical about Nolan's decision to cast Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle.
