The blogosphere blew up after Warner Bros. announced July 2012 as the release date of director Christopher Nolan’s Batman series’ third installment entitled, “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Warner Bros. also tabbed Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Tom Hardy as Batman’s nemesis Bane.

After hearing the news, I threw open my window in unbridled enthusiasm. “YEEEEEEUUUUUUS!!!!!” I cried, with less rationale than the makers of the “Afternoon Delight” music video in the deleted scenes of “Anchorman.” Since leaving the theater after seeing “The Dark Knight,” I do little else but ponder the next chapter of Nolan’s saga. It was like getting to the last chapter of a novel and having my mom tell me to mow the lawn. And I have a big lawn. Still, all this waiting is making me appreciate the story even more.

And what will the additions of Hathaway and Hardy mean to that story? Evidence indicates more than a few people are pondering just that. According to Yahoo.com reporter Mike Krumboltz, web searches on Hathaway have gone up a mindboggling 3,693% since her role as Catwoman was announced, which would probably make your brain fall out of your skull if not for the mindbottling 17,662% increase in Hardy searches in the same time frame.

It seems that after Heath Ledger’s mentally disturbing portrayal of the Joker in “TDK,” the onus is on Hardy to play an equally disturbing villain in this finale. After Ledger died, fans have speculated about which character would replace him as Christian Bale’s villainous opposite, with the Riddler and, most recently, psychopathic DC Comics villain Dr. Hugo Strange being the top guesses.

The only place fair weather Batman fans will remember Bane from is Joel Schumacher’s “Batman and Robin” film, where he acted as Poisen Ivy’s brainless henchman. But no Nolan characters have been flat, and there’s no risk of Bane breaking that trend as the comic book Bane seems just as cerebral and hardened as Ledger’s Joker.

As for Hathaway…well, this trilogy must be due for a sex scene, right? Only joking. To me, injecting an actor like Hathaway into this production—one that has set the bar for superhero movies and, frankly, embarrassed its competition—will wind up being yet another stroke of casting genius. I thought the choice of Ledger a little dubious before I saw “TDK,” too. Other than “A Knight’s Tale”, he had only gotten roles in chick flicks up to that point, and he had never played a villain.

But I barely recognized the man I saw in the film. Certainly this sadist’s messed-up mind wasn’t the same one that once serenaded Julia Stiles with an Australian accent and a bundle of Joey Donner’s cash? He was a virtuoso, edging Bale as the best actor in the movie. Hathaway’s only starred in chick flicks, too, but she has no choice but to raise her game for this movie. She’ll have to if she’s going to keep up with Bale, who’s been known to lose and gain massive amounts of weight in short periods of time for roles.

That’s the thing everyone forgot after the Hathaway/Hardy announcement. The last sentence in every “TDKR” story read something like, “Oh, and Christian Bale’s back as Batman.” It was like this summer when everyone was hyperventilating because LeBron James and Chris Bosh signed with the Heat. Oh, that’s right. Dwayne Wade plays for the Heat.

And because the rest of the ingredients that made the past two movies so great will be back, there’s no reason for me to consider a return to rationality for at least another summer.