Batman fans went into a feeding frenzy this week with the release of three cryptic new viral videos for Christopher Nolan‘s third Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. The three videos were uploaded to Youtube this week by a user named TheFireRises which is the same name used by the person or persons who recently revealed the first pictures of the newest Batman villain, Bane played Tom Hardy.
In the first video titled “419,” allegedly police code for a dead body, chaos reigns as flames engulf an assumed Gotham high rise.
In the second video titled “Outbreak” we go inside a Guantanamo Bay style prison facility. The video of hooded prisoners is accompanied by creepy, indecipherable chanting. We know this is Batman related because in the opening moments a new announcer reports from “GCN News.” GCN is Gotham City News.
In the final, most recent video, titled “GCN,” Anthony Michael Hall who played news anchor Mike Engel in The Dark Knight makes a brief appearance and we see a banner across the bottom of a TV screen reading “Arkham Breakout?” Rumors have circulated that The Dark Knight Rises would feature an escape from Arkham Asylum like the one portrayed in the famous Bane-Batman comics story arc “Knightfall” during which Bane leads a massive prison break at Arkham Asylum.
The Dark Knight set the standard for viral marketing with the Joker ‘Why So Serious’ campaign and the Alternative Reality Game that essentially created a living and breathing Gotham City for hardcore fans to virtually take part in.
Can The Dark Knight Rises match that level of incredible viral hype? We shall see. The Dark Knight Rises opens worldwide July 20th, 2012.