The Batman seems to be on its way to be a very different Batman movie from what has been seen before, and it’s in big part thanks to its main villain: the Riddler, who looks nothing like his comic book counterpart. Batman has had an interesting history on the big screen, which began in the 1940s and became more popular in the late 1980s thanks to Tim Burton’s Batman. After Batman Returns in 1992, the Caped Crusader went through a rough patch with Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, but regained its popularity on the big screen in the 2000s thanks to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.
In 2016, Batman joined DC’s Extended Universe in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, with the character now played by Ben Affleck, who later returned in a very small role in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad before joining other heroes from the DCEU in Justice League. Following the underperformance of Justice League, Warner Bros. decided to make some much-needed changes and branched out with projects separate from the DCEU, as is the upcoming movie The Batman. Directed by Matt Reeves, The Batman will follow a young Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) in his second year as a detective and vigilante, and as he explores Gotham City’s corruption, he will come face to face with a couple of villains, as are Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin (Colin Farrell), Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), and Edward Nashton/Riddler (Paul Dano).
The main villain of The Batman, however, will be the Riddler, who was at the front and center of the teaser trailer revealed at DC FanDome in August 2020. The trailer gave the audience a taste of the tone of the movie as well as a first look at the Penguin, Catwoman, and the Riddler, this one showing how far he can go to send a message to the citizens of Gotham. The Riddler stood out not just because of his actions, as the trailer begins with him torturing (and eventually killing) mayor Don Mitchell, but also due to his look, which is completely different from what he looks like in the comics and previous movie versions, and thus proves that The Batman will be completely different from what fans have seen before.
Surely, every adaptation of Batman and other characters related to him has been different and has changed the characters to fit its style – Schumacher’s movies, for example, had a campier and more comic book feel, while Nolan went for a more realistic look. In The Batman’s case, however, Catwoman looks like her and the Penguin is also close to the character fans know (at least in the trailer), but everything about the Riddler is different. The Riddler is typically depicted as less violent than other Batman enemies but one who is a criminal mastermind and with an intellect high enough to incorporate complex riddles and puzzles into his schemes, and has been mostly portrayed as playful rather than dangerous. The Batman’s version of the Riddler is completely different from that, starting with his look, as he doesn’t wear the character’s typical green suit, mask, and question mark shaped cane, instead covering his whole body, even wearing glasses to fully hide his identity.
While The Batman’s Riddler does seem to have kept elements from the comics and mostly from the Arkham videogame series, especially when it comes to how he operates, this new version has its own twists, and the fact that he was made the main villain of the movie already shows how different The Batman is going to be, mostly darker and more violent – just take a look at what he did to two of his victims in the trailer, which shows that he’s going to be a very different threat than other versions, particularly Jim Carrey’s in Batman Forever, who was more comedic. It might take a while for Warner to release another teaser for The Batman as filming hasn’t wrapped yet, but the audience will have to wait until the movie is out to fully see the Riddler in action and exactly how different he is from all previous versions from the comics, television, and film.
