Major Possible Spoiler of a returning character in The Dark Knight Rises

This is one of those stories that I wish I'd never read, but it's too late now, and I feel somewhat obligated to cover it since we've followed every minor rumor regarding The Dark Knight Rises. But since this a potentially massive spoiler involving the return of a major character not previously announced, I'll save it for after the break....

Ok, so Drew over at HitFix has received word that a recent scene shot in Christopher Nolan's third Batflick included Liam Neeson, reprising his role as Ras Al Ghul, the villain in Batman Begins. Neeson has been on record saying he hadn't been asked to come back, but that could've been true at the time. Stories evolve all the time.

What we do know is that Josh Pence is cast as a younger version of Al Ghul, which we assumed would be in flashback, possibly involving the origin of Bane(Tom Hardy). Shots of what have been presumed to be the Lazarus Pit have been seen on set, as well. The Lazarus Pit is what Al Ghul uses to stay young, healthy, and even return from the dead. Does this mean Pence's version of Al Ghul isn't in flashback but set in the current time? Or is Neeson part of a totally different flashback? It's really impossible to say right now, and I suspect we won't know for a long time. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a total lockdown on any info now due to this supposed leak. We'll just have to wait and see.