The Batman Star Paul Dano Teases New Details About the Riddler

Should production for Matt Reeves’ The Batman get back on track sooner or later, the masses will eventually see Paul Dano play The Riddler in a reimagining of the classic comics villain. Little is really known about the entire production at this point, other than the fact we’ll see Batman (Robert Pattinson), Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), and Penguin (Colin Farrell) amongst all sorts of other Gotham-centric characters. Even then, Dano recently opened up about his role ever so slightly – teasing a fun addition to the character Edward Nigma.

“I can’t even legally can’t say anything about it,” Dano tells The Playlist. “There’s something fun there in my character and in all the characters. It’s the kind of movie that we’re just desperate to share on the big screen in a big way. So, I hope we all figure this [coronavirus situation] out and get excited to see a Batman movie. It will be worth it. It’s going to be really cool.”

In the same interview, Dano also revealed that at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, he went home for a break and was unable to return due to travel shutdowns. “I was filming. I flew home to visit my baby and then didn’t get to fly back [to set, because of Coronavirus], which is a really strange thing,” the actor adds. “But I feel really good about it. I think Matt Reeves is the real deal. I was really surprised by his script, which I think is, is potentially really powerful. Hopefully we’ll get to get back to it sometime soon? I’m not sure.”

Reeves has now taken over the property and has seemingly separated it from the larger DC Extended Universe where Ben Affleck played the Caped Crusader. This time around, as the filmmaker has previously said, the focus will be on Batman’s earliest days as a crimefighter.

“It’s very much a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale,” Reeves said last year. “It’s told very squarely on his shoulders, and I hope it’s going to be a story that will be thrilling but also emotional. It’s more Batman in his detective mode than we’ve seen in the films. The comics have a history of that. He’s supposed to be the world’s greatest detective, and that’s not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been. I’d love this to be one where when we go on that journey of tracking down the criminals and trying to solve a crime, it’s going to allow his character to have an arc so that he can go through a transformation.”

The Batman is currently set for release on October 1, 2021.

Cover photo by Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic