The Dark Knight Rises viral videos: Is this our first look at the film?

It’s best to be skeptical about essentially everything you hear about The Dark Knight Rises. Director Christopher Nolan is famously secretive and mischievous when it comes to releasing any plot information. Even the first shot of the film’s baddie, Bane, reveals just enough to tantalize rather than satisfy. So take this with a grain of salt: Three mysterious videos have been posted to YouTube by a user called “TheFireRises.” The first, titled “419,” features scenes of devastation and the sight of a massive skyscraper burning. The second, titled “Outbreak,” takes you inside of an Abu Ghraib-qsue prison (Arkham Asylum?), while terrifying chanting builds in the background. The most recent video, “GCN,” is the most explicitly Dark Knight-ish, with Anthony Michael Hall’s newscaster apparently reporting on an Arkham Asylum outbreak. Check it out:

So, are these videos for real? EW contacted Warner Bros. for a comment, but a rep for the studio simply noted that they had no comment “at this time.” Even more confusingly, the “GCN” video ends by flashing a URL that takes you to a Facebook page for The Fire Rises, which features a deliriously fake-looking political-campaign ad of Matthew Modine — who, you’ll remember, recently signed onto the film to play a character named Nixon.

So, is any of this for real? Survey says: Maybe. It seems a little bit too on the nose to have Modine playing a politician named “Nixon.” But in the classic comic book storyline “Knightfall,” Bane did indeed stage an Arkham Asylum breakout. And it certainly feels like a full-scale Gotham City implosion would end the Dark Knight trilogy with a bang.

Do you think this footage is real, or just the work of feverish fans?

Follow Darren on Twitter: @EWDarrenFranich

Read more:

First look at Bane from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’: Those back muscles are freaking me out

Matthew Modine officially cast in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Burning Questions: Where’s Talia? Will Catwoman show up? And will Bane break Batman’s back?