It seems like all those "The Dark Knight Rises" rumors about The Riddler weren't so far off after all. Fans were long clamoring for The Riddler to be the villain in the movie, and apparently Warner Bros execs were as well. According to a new interview with David Goyer in Empire, some higher ups at WB decided they wanted The Riddler to be the big bad in "The Dark Knight Rises" as early as "The Dark Knight," and they knew who they wanted to play him: Leonardo DiCaprio.

Of course, that was all long before who Goyer and Christopher Nolan even knew what "The Dark Knight Rises" was going to be about, but it's interesting that WB went straight to Leo. At the time, he wasn't even cast in "Inception" yet. It's interesting that he is one of the few "Inception" stars who didn't come back for "The Dark Knight Rises," but that could be because of timing as much as anything else.

Batman-News.com got their hands on the July Empire edition early, and broke down some of the other interesting nuggets of information from it as well. Apparently Nolan and Goyer knew what they wanted the ending of the movie to be well before they had anything else figured out. That ending has remained unchanged ever since and, according to the site, gave Goyer "a lump in his throat" when he saw it.

In addition, Nolan was apparently very nervous about including Catwoman in his mythology, but his brother Jonah convinced him it was necessary. As such, Anne Hathaway is never referred to as Catwoman in the script.

And don't expect there to be a reference to the Joker in this upcoming movie, because Nolan has confirmed that that's definitely not going to happen.

Starring Christian Bale, Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard and Morgan Freeman, "The Dark Knight Rises" hits theaters on July 20.

Would you want to see a Batman movie with DiCaprio as The Riddler? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!