New ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Trailer Attached To ‘Avengers’

As if you needed another reason to see ‘The Avengers’ on opening weekend. It appears Warner Bros. is doing Marvel/Disney a solid by programming the third (and possible final) ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ trailer to the front of Joss Whedon’s blockbuster on May 4. Expect the Internet to crash by May 5.

The news was posted to NolanFans.com, which grabbed its info from the Warner Bros. Exhibitor site claiming that the “New Version” of a ‘'The Dark Knight Rises’ trailer will precede ‘The Avengers’ in 2D, 3D and IMAX.

But what will we see? The last trailer had so many memorable images, few bigger than the decimation of Heinz Field. Nolan notoriously likes to keep his cards close to his vest, so I’m genuinely curious to see what footage a third trailer feels like it needs to reveal. We’re already in the tank for ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’ You could hold all marketing materials until July 19, and hordes of moviegoers would STILL flood the theaters on July 20.

Yet it sounds like WB isn’t being stingy. It will share some new footage on May 4, perhaps giving us better looks at Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), Bane (Tom Hardy) and the Caped Crusader (Christian Bale) who’ll go to hell and back to see that Gotham is protected from these evil forces.

‘The Avengers’ opens on May 4, of course. ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ reaches theaters on July 20.