In one of the weirder rumors we've seen for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice so far, The Hobbit and Star Trek Into Darkness villain Benedict Cumberbatch apparently has refused to deny rumors that he will appear as the bad guy in the upcoming Zack Snyder film.

This could well be a joke, given the phrasing and the fact that he just signed on to play the villain in The Jungle Book as well, suddenly making him one of the most frequent villains in Hollywood tentpoles, but Twitter -- as you might expect -- is taking it quite seriously.

Benedict Cumberbatch says he's not going to put to bed rumours he's the baddie in #BatmanvSuperman @BBCNewsbeat pic.twitter.com/HMtUbcMtsA — Chi Chi Izundu (@blondeafro) September 2, 2014

In fairness, that's because while the Twitter account above is full of gushing praise for the actors and actresses that makes it self-evidently somebody's personal account, it is the personal account of a BBC Radio 1 and BBC Three presenter, meaning that his tag of Newsbeat and his seemingly-credulous interpretation of the quote both carry some weight.

Cumberbatch has long been a fan favorite to play Brainiac, the living computer who has in his possession a city in a bottle stolen from Superman's homeworld of Krypton. There has been no formal indication that Brainiac would appear in the film, but he has often been considered as a film villain for Superman. The character initially appeared in the script for Superman Lives! and was also reportedly Bryan Singer's choice for the bad guy in a prospective sequel to Superman Returns that never got made.

Recently, rumors began circulating that he could be considered to play either Brainiac or Martian Manhunter in this and/or the Justice League film, but they had not been taken particularly seriously until now.