So I know we were placing our bets on The Dark Knight’s follow-up to bow in 2011, but now the whole affair’s looking kind of dead in the water. Michael Caine explained his reservations to British magazine Shortlist. “But I don’t know if they are ever going to make another Batman,” Caine explains. “If they do it won’t be for quite a while.” Which may make casting speculation this nothing more than pipe dreams perhaps. Possibly for the best.

Which is probably for the best as Dane Cook has made public his yen to essay the role of The Riddler. Which somehow manages to out-worse Miley Cyrus’ rumored audition for the part of Batgirl. Although who knew that if you were a celebrity with a very average skillset, you could audition for one of the most film franchises just by shooting your mouth off to tabloids? Funny, that.

A list of director Christopher Nolan’s projects in the pipeline reveals that there’s not even the hint of the Caped Crusader. And fine, he probably wants to fill up the next few years churning out proper “legacy films.” So that one day, like another niche-turned-flailing-mainstream director, he can have his own senseless Amelia experiment, which will inspire everyone to strongarm him back into helming films about superheroes and amnesiacs.

But Caine adds, just to toy with our gullible heads a little more: “As for the future … if they ever make another Batman I will be in, I will be the butler.” And of course, whether or not Christian Bale or Aaron Eckhart reprise their roles, it’s the role of Alfred that remains the cornerstone of Nolan’s Batman franchise.