The Dark Knight Rises Trailer Kicks Off Year of Hype (VIDEO)

The Dark Knight Rises trailer has people abuzz about the final film of the franchise set to be released in the summer of 2012.

As Harry Potter, a critically acclaimed, cash cow movie series takes its final Hollywood lap; the Christopher Nolan Batman series is preparing to do the same. The first trailer of The Dark Knight Rises has been released to moviegoers of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The teaser trailer begins what is likely to be a year of hype and build up before the final movie is released next summer.

The trailer begins with the words, Every Hero Has A Journey across the screen. It then goes to scenes from the first movie from the series, Batman Begins with overlaying words from Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson) saying, If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, then you become something else entirely, a legend, Mr. Wayne, a legend. It displays the words, Every Hero Has An End.

The trailer then shifts to an image of Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) on a hospital bed in bad shape. He is breathing through an oxygen tank.

Through pained words, Gordon tells Batman, You were gone. Now there is evil rising. The Batman must come back. Batman and/or Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) responds, What if he doesn't exist anymore? Gordon responds, He must..he must.

Through this exchange, the trailers cut to various images of Gotham City and Batman's final foe, Bane (Tom Hardy) working out. The images of Bane are similar to those that have leaked in the past few months. From this exchange there are images of buildings crumbling, which come straight from the movie poster.

The final image, following the title display, is of Batman facing off with Bane. Batman looks a little scared of the giant villain and is shown backing down from him.

The trailer tells little of how the movie will go other than public knowledge. It does give a few hints though. It seems as if it takes place a few years or so after The Dark Knight, as indicated by Gordon's You were gone. It also appears Bane is going to be jacked out of his mind and has destroyed Gotham City, taking down Gordon in the process. Hardy has indicated he plans on playing Bane as menacing and has gained 30 pounds for the role.

The trailer does not address how Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) or John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) will tie into the movie.

The franchise, directed by Nolan and starring Bale has destroyed the box office with the previous two movies and been an overwhelming critical success. Batman Begins earned $205 million domestically and scored 84 percent fresh with critics according to Rottentomatoes.com. The sequel, The Dark Knight, did even better. It earned $533 million at the box office domestically (more than $1 billion worldwide) and was 94 percent fresh. Heath Ledger scored a win for best supporting actor in a movie for his role as The Joker.