We’ve known for a while now that Christopher Nolan is eager to squeeze as many Inception cast members as possible into his final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. It was announced back in January that Tom Hardy will be playing the villain Bane, and on top of that, it has essentially been common knowledge for the past few months that both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard will also be involved as well. However, despite rampant speculation across the blogosphere, their roles have remained under wraps… until now. It turns out Joseph Gordon-Levitt won’t be playing The Riddler, Robin or even Alberto Falcone, and Cotillard will not be playing Talia Al Ghul. Instead, they will both play supporting roles that are not tied to the comics in anyway whatsoever.

The official press release from Warner Brothers reads as follows:

“Cotillard will appear as Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham. Gordon-Levitt will play John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon. The film reunites the actors with Christopher Nolan, who recently directed them in the award-winning blockbuster Inception.”

So there you go… a board member and a cop. Yay! As far as I know, neither of these characters have previously appeared in the Batman universe — at least not under those names. While I’m sure comic book fans will be a little disappointed with this news, the truth is, this is one of the things that sets Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies apart from other comic book movies. He is able to weave in average everyday characters alongside superheroes and supervillains and make them matter. Either way, the casting of two great actors is still something to be excited about, right?