Long Day’s Journey into Knight: A Timeline of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

The Dark Knight Rises had its premiere in that other Gotham last night. Which meant the stars of the film got to watch a movie of which the entire story and spectacle they already knew while hardworking Joes like us who didn't have the pleasure of sitting in on the script read-through were left out in the cold, forced to now wait another ninety hours before we can see if Bane truly does break the Bat!!

So now that we have a little time left on our hands waiting for Fandango to approve our credit card for those pre-ordered tickets, let's take a look back on this film's two decade journey with a timeline of The Dark Knight Rises.

April 1993: The Knightfall comic book series begins its run, creating the story of Batman's newest villain, Bane. When it was announced almost twenty years later that Bane would feature as the main villain in the latest Batman movie, everyone asks, 'Who the f@ck is Bane?'

June 20, 1997: Batman and Robin is unfortunately released into theaters. Villains include a chloroformically created henchman called Bane. A twenty-four year old Christopher 'Kriss/Kross' Nolan watches and thinks, 'hmmmmm...'

July 18, 2008: The Dark Knight is released in theaters to critical and commercial acclaim. As soon as the credits begin to roll, every bored fanboy with Photoshop makes fake posters for a third film with the Riddler as the villain and throws them out across the internet.

February 2, 2010: To get back into character, Christian Bale goes batshit (uhthankyou) on a DP on the set of Terminator: Salvation.

February 9, 2010: A Guinness record is made for the world's most unanimous sigh of relief when Christopher Nolan announces that he will indeed return for a third and final outing.

January 19, 2011: Warner Brothers announces Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy have been cast as villains Selina Kyle and Bane, respectively.

May 6, 2011: Filming commences on The Dark Knight Rises in India. Rumors of a big Bollywood-inspired song-and-dance number are instantly quashed. In the meantime you have this:

July 11, 2011: The first teaser trailer for The Dark Knight Rises is revealed online.

July 20, 2012: The third and final Christopher Nolan-helmed Batman film is released in theaters.

July 21, 2012: Warner Brothers executives begins to debate how best to reboot the series. The names Justin Bieber and Brett Ratner are batted around and leaked to the press.