‘Dark Knight Rises’ Actor Tom Hardy Talks About Playing Bane

Christopher Nolan's final installment of the Batman films 'The Dark Knight Rises' is currently filming in Pittsburgh with the goal of a summer 2012 release. Recent leaked pictures from the set have fanboys skeptical about the much smaller than the comics Bane, actor Tom Hardy says his take on the character won't "disappoint".

Fans finally got a look at Tom Hardy's Bane this week and to their surprise, he wasn't a giant unrealistically muscled out beast like in the comics. In keeping with Nolan's based in reality Batman Universe; Bane looked like...well, Tom Hardy with a mask on. In the comics Bane broke Bruce Wayne's back ending his run as The Dark Knight, whether or not that is where the movie is going is still unclear. However, Hardy was able to speak about the project and his character a little bit with Total Film:

"I think Bane's f---ing cool so I'm really excited to play him, It's not the guy in Joel Schumacher's film [played by Jeep Swenson], but it shouldn't disappoint fanboys. All I can say is that Chris has a plan up his sleeve that's not at all disappointing. And that is a definite choice that's watertight in every respect"

Guess we'll have to take his word for it, although Hardy himself hasn't seen much of the footage as he made clear when running into MTV at this year's San Diego Comic Con:

"'Dark Knight Rises' looks like it's going to be an awesome, awesome movie. I saw the trailer myself, and I am very excited too. I should be working right now. I came to Comic-Con just to have a little look"

Apparently everyone is excited to see this thing, even the people in it. 'The Dark Knight Rises' is set to hit theaters July 20, 2012.