The Batman vs Superman film was only announced a couple weeks ago at Comic-Con, and already industry trades L.A. Times and THR are wildly speculating on who could be the next actor to don the cape and cowl in the recent Batman vs Superman casting rumors. Many sources have stated that this Batman will be in his late 30s or early 40s — in keeping with Batman/Superman’s primary comic book inspiration, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.

The things we know for sure are Christian Bale is definitely not returning, and it probably won’t be Idris Elba because that would simply be too much awesome for one movie. Everything else is wide open to speculation, and we here at Renegade Cinema are of course not adverse to such pie-in-the-sky, wild, and otherwise completely groundless rumors. Get your fap tubes ready, fanboys.

Based solely on that information THR released a list of potential front-runners for the role, and here goes:

Josh Brolin, age 46 — Played Jonah Hex, starred in Warner Bros. Gangster Squad. He’s also has the Frank Miller connection, playing a major role in the upcoming Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

Ryan Gosling — HAHA! Seriously, THR? He is 32 and was also in Gangster Squad.

Joe Manganiello, age 36 — He plays a naked, sweaty werewolf on the naked, sweat vampire show True Blood. Was considered for the role of Superman in Man of Steel, but obviously lost to Henry Cavill.

Richard Armitage, age 41 — Currently playing Thorin in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy. Looks totally different in real life.

Max Martini, age 43 — Had a minor role in Pacific Rim, was in a bunch of TV shows. Otherwise anonymous.

Matthew Goode, age 35 — Is connected to Zack Snyder because he played Ozymandias in the 2009 Watchmen film.

Any talk of casting at this point of Batman vs Superman casting is superfluous as the film hasn’t even finished the scripting phase. We can, however, expect actual casting information to start trickling in in the coming months as Legendary Pictures gears up for an early 2014 shooting schedule.

Batman/Superman is expected to hit theaters in 2015.