Los Angeles – Johnny Depp will play a villain in the next Batman film.

The actor was linked to the role of The Riddler earlier this year and now one of the superhero franchise’s stars Sir Michael Caine has confirmed both Johnny and Philip Seymour Hoffman will appear.

“I was with a Warner Bros executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said, ‘Yeah’,” said Michael – who played Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred Pennyworth in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

“I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath Ledger as The Joker? And he says, ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath – Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, ‘Shit, they’ve done it again!’ ” he continued.

Johnny recently described the prospect of playing The Riddler as “fun”.

“I heard about that. It seems like it’d be a fun gig for a while, yeah,” he said.

Work is expected to begin on the next movie, starring Christian Bale as Batman, some time next year. – Bang Showbiz.com

Source: News24.com

According to part-time-poet, posted at The Zone:

It’s not a “false report,” because Michael Caine did make the comments, but it’s false in the sense that it’s something said tongue-in-cheek that is being taken seriously. Michael Caine is joking around with the reporter, but he has a very deadpan wit, and–as is often the case with Johnny–something he said as a joke gets picked up and reported seriously in the press. (Think of all the press conferences JD has had with Tim Burton where they joke about what their next movie together will be, and those joke-projects get reported as real possibilities.)

This is not any kind of confirmation of the Riddler casting from Michael Caine; it’s quite the opposite. It’s another indication that the rumor should not be taken seriously, but some people reporting the story missed the point.