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Director Matt Reeves Reveals Why The Riddler is The Perfect Big Villain For The Batman


Prisoners star Paul Dano will make his debut as The Riddler in the upcoming Matt Reeves reboot of The Batman franchise. As we saw from the trailer, Dano’s portrayal of The Riddler was immensely dark and terrifying which the director confirmed that the reason took inspiration from the 1960s real-life serial killer, the Zodiac Killer.

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The Batman’s director, Matt Reeves opens up on why he wanted The Riddler to be the first big villain for The Batman reboot. Reeves was impressed by how Zodiac’s intelligent method of committing crimes became sensational as he leaves a trail of clues, pieces of evidence, and symbolism for the police to decode. Reeves found this as inspiration for the plot for The Riddler leaving trails for Batman to figure out.

"I wanted to do a Batman story where he was already Batman, but he still was in early days, had to find a way to sort of really evolve. I wanted to do a story that the investigation of this particular mystery would lead him back to something very personal, and would rock him to his core. So knowing that I wanted to do that kind of thing, I started sort of, from Long Halloween, I was thinking about the sort of Calendar Man and the idea of the different sort of killings. Then this idea came to me and I thought, well, we do a thing where at these crimes, there's correspondence left for the Batman."

The director added, "I thought, well, that's a great way in. As I started thinking about that and trying to ground it, I thought about the Zodiac. I thought about how the Zodiac, in this horrific way, left all of this sort of disturbing, these ciphers and these communications to the police and to the newspapers and how unsettling that was."

Reeves continued to describe The Riddler:

"I thought, wow, that actually sounds like a horrifying version of the Riddler, because he was leaving all these puzzles. So the Riddler was part of the conception very early on in trying to figure out, which of the Rogues Gallery characters would communicate in that way with Batman. So that happened right away. Then I started thinking, well, to me, what's interesting, like I said before, it's not his origin, but I thought it would be interesting, that as you followed the details of the crime, that it would take him across the paths of these other characters." The Riddler was in plans for the script from an early stage.

Reeves then highlighted how the importance of social media will be The Riddler’s biggest medium in handling pieces of symbolisms for the police of Gotham city and The Batman.

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"It was very important to me that Gotham not be New York, not be Chicago, not be any particular city, I wanted you to feel like, wow, this is a place we've never been before, but it feels absolutely like an iconic American city, a really corrupt, messed up place, but I wanted it to be much of our world. As I was doing that, I was thinking, okay, so he wouldn't write to the Chronicle the way that Zodiac did. He would start using social media, because that's what it would be. And this idea of the kind of viral communication, I just wanted it to be very much of our world. So that's kind of how that came about."

The Riddler will be antagonizing the whole of Gotham City and will be the main problem for Robert Pattinson’s Batman. Alongside Pattinson and Dano, Zoe Kravitz will also debut as Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, and Colin Ferrell as Oswald Cobblepot.

The Batman is set to hit theaters on March 4, 2022.

Also Read: The Batman: Paul Dano Discussed His Transformation as The Riddler

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