New The Batman Clip Unmasks Paul Dano's Riddler
Breaking News: The Riddler has officially been unmasked! New footage from Warner Bros. and DC Films' "The Batman" features the first official look at Paul Dano's Edward Nashton/The Riddler, sans his signature green mask. The clip premiered on "Good Morning America," and depicts a scene from the film's main trailer, offering an extended look at the cipher-loving killer's face, who turns around with his hands up after he is arrested by Gotham City Police.
Take a look at the brand-new clip below.
Here's what anarchy looks like
While it doesn't really give us anything fresh or new, the footage above offers a continuation of a scene that is cut off in the official trailer of "The Batman." After Dano's character is arrested, he essentially turns around and offers a smirk to Jim Gordon and the rest of the Gotham City Police Department, purportedly revealing how unhinged he is as a character. While it is too early to speculate about what exactly occurs prior to this particular clip, it is highly possible that getting caught was a deliberate move on The Riddler's part, as it could very well be a twisted part of his grand plan to expose Gotham.
Dano is the third actor to play The Riddler in a live-action film, following Frank Gorshin in 1966's "Batman" and Jim Carrey's unforgettable portrayal of the villain in 1995's "Batman Forever." Although both of these portrayals were pretty eccentric in their own way, Dano's rendition of the antagonist seems to be more grounded and dangerous, at least from what can be gathered from trailers, TV spots, and sneak peeks.
Per CBR, director Matt Reeves explained the roots of The Riddler in "The Batman" being inspired by the Zodiac Killer, as he is killing prominent figures of authority in Gotham:
"The premise of the movie is that the Riddler is kind of molded in an almost Zodiac Killer sort of mode, and is killing very prominent figures in Gotham, and they are the pillars of society. These are supposedly legitimate figures. It begins with the mayor, and then it escalates from there. And in the wake of the murders, he reveals the ways in which these people were not everything they said they were, and you start to realize there's some kind of association. And so just like Woodward and Bernstein, you've got Gordon and Batman trying to follow the clues to try and make sense of this thing in a classic kind-of-detective story way."
"The Batman" also stars Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Colin Ferrell.
"The Batman" is scheduled for release in theaters on March 4, 2022.