Paul Dano’s real Riddler voice is uncovered in a new The Batman fan edit. For the first time since 1995’s Batman Forever, the classic riddling Batman villain in the green suit is set to receive the live-action big-screen treatment, with Dano taking over the role last played by Jim Carrey.

Carrey’s depiction of the Riddler of course was rather controversial with fans, as was a lot of the Joel Schumacher-directed Batman Forever, a film that took the comic book franchise in a decidedly over-the-top and cartoonish direction (Schumacher’s Batman and Robin took things even farther). Matt Reeves’ The Batman promises to go the exact opposite direction, at least as evidenced by the recently released first trailer, as the writer-director brings appropriate grit and darkness to Gotham City. Dano’s Riddler indeed was one of the more impressive and mysterious aspects of that first trailer, which showed someone who is presumed to be the famous villain decked out in a coat and gas mask creepily applying duct tape to his victim’s face in order to leave a message for the cops and Batman. The voice of the Riddler can also be heard speaking menacingly over much of the trailer, though that voice sounds to be electronically manipulated.

Related: The Batman Theory: The Villain In The Trailer Is Hush, Not Riddler

To help unravel the mystery of the Riddler a little further, YouTube user Mike Choe applied a little audio know-how, pitching up the Riddler’s trailer voice-over to give fans a better idea of what Dano’s take on the character actually sounds like. Hear that voice in the clip in the space below:

Hearing Dano’s “real” Riddler voice offers one more clue to where the actor went with his depiction of the character, and it definitely seems that this will not be a clown-like portrayal, as even at a higher pitch the voice retains a certain creepy menace. All this mystery is of course appropriate for Reeves’ The Batman, which promises to take the Caped Crusader back to his detective roots, offering up a perhaps more cerebral Batman experience than fans received with the Zack Snyder era of the DCEU.

An accomplished actor with credits that include There Will Be Blood, 12 Years a Slave and Escape at Dannemora, Dano is indeed a particularly interesting actor to cast as the Riddler. In the past the character has always been depicted as a wacky jokester in a green suit, but obviously Reeves wanted to get away from that more cartoonish take on the villain, hence his choice of the relatively under-stated and subtle Dano. Dano of course will have a chance to go big in The Batman if he wants, and perhaps going big is simply irresistible with a character like the Riddler, but it seems unlikely that he would go the full-on cartoon route Carrey chose when playing the character in Batman Forever (Carrey of course was known at the time for his rubber-faced comedic performances, so he was simply delivering what was expected of him). There’s no doubt The Batman will be darker than Batman Forever and a lot of the other movies in the long-running franchise, and it now seems equally certain Dano’s Riddler will be one of the movie’s most unsettling aspects.

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Source: Mike Choe/YouTube