The first theatrical teaser trailer for The Dark Knight came attached to The Simpsons Movie back in the summer of 2007, a full year before the Batman Begins sequel opened to break world records. That teaser contained no footage from the actual film, just the logo and voiceovers of some of the main characters.

With Warner Bros. launching what could be the biggest film of the year in the eighth and final Harry Potter in July, it would be silly for them not do something similar for their biggest film of 2012, right? Rumors say that's exactly what they're doing for The Dark Knight Rises.

The always unreliable IMDB gave rise to a buzzworthy message from a user claiming to work at a theater where he saw the trailer list for what teasers will be attached to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2. According to this source, Batman 3 will be one of them.

"I am a manager of a cinema. Today we got a list of upcoming trailers delivered to us and the 'Dark Knight Rises' teaser is listed to be with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 on July 15th."

Supporting the rumor, another forum user posted something similar on SuperHeroHype who heard from his "buddy," another cinema employee, that the very first The Dark Knight Rises teaser would be at their theater as well on July 15th.

"Updated listings at Regal have TDKR teaser attached to Harry Potter. I dont have a link my buddy that works there texted me about it. Having worked at a Regal for 6 years there listings are usually pretty accurate not 100% but pretty close. Its not much but it does help confirm what people have been guessing on here for awhile"

While random online postings from unverified sources are meaningless, the idea behind what they claim is sound. The studio isn't shy in marketing The Dark Knight Rises early with them already releasing the first image of Tom Hardy as Bane last week. And we know that come Comic-Con in late July, a week after Harry Potter 7 hits theaters, they'll have a lot more to show.

While we wait, here's that very first teaser for The Dark Knight from '07 which introduced us to the Oscar-winning Joker voice of Heath Ledger.

If you missed it, also check out the awesome fan-made Batman 3 trailer.

Expect the official TDKR teaser to offer something similar with little to no footage of the actual film - they just began principal photography after all. It's just an easy way to let the entire world know of what's coming next year from Christopher Nolan.

The Dark Knight Rises cast sees the return of Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Nestor Carbonell and Michael Caine along with franchise newcomers Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion CotillardJuno TempleJosh Pence, Daniel Sunjata, Burn Gorman, Diego Klattenhoff and Alon Aboutboul.

-

Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes,

Sources: IMDB, SHH