Seemingly confirming speculation sparked last week bygrainy photos snapped at the movie’s Jodhpur set, The Times of India contends the “30 ft x 30 ft green screen will be digitally modified to create the Lazarus Pit,” a restorative chemical pool used in DC comics by Ra’s al Ghul to prolong his life. The question, however, is who goes into, or comes out of, the pit.

On a Facebook group called the Official The Dark Knight Rises Community, where the India set photos and numerous rumors have cropped up, member Lester Fernandes trumpets “the plot leak you’ve been waiting for”: Eyewitnesses and crew members purportedly say that, in one scene, “a bald-headed child wearing ragged clothes emerges from the well and pulls his hood over his head.”

“From the conversations, we reckon this is a young Bane, emerging from a vat of Venom, trained by Pence’s Ra’s al Ghul,” Fernandes theorizes, referring to the fictional strength-enhancing super-steroid that provides the source of Bane’s power. The training aspect is seemingly supported by a photo by Mehul Gohil of a courtyard at Jodhpur’s Mehrangar Fort identified as a “training arena” (shown at right).

However, The Times reports there were scenes shot of “Bale being carried into the pit and then jumping out of it.”

It’s certainly possible both accounts are accurate, with the “young Bane” scene taking place in flashback, thus explaining the presence of Pence — shown on location in the first photo below — as a younger Ra’s al Ghul. Bale could be placed in the pit in the present, perhaps after a back-breaking showdown with the adult Bane (Tom Hardy). Of course, that would certainly mean the poolis the Lazarus Pit and not, as Fernandes suggests, a vat of Venom. Or else, the vat and the pit are entirely different locations.

The Dark Knight Rises so far stars Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Pence, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. Juno Temple, Nestor Carbonell and Daniel Sunjata are also reported to be part of the ensemble. It opens on July 20, 2012."