It’s been three years since Paul Dano debuted as the Riddler in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but fans have only just noticed one brilliant detail in the villain’s costume. Robert Pattinson’s turn as the Caped Crusader revitalized the character after Ben Affleck’s tenure, and Pattinson’s darker and more grounded Bruce Wayne was given a similarly gritty new villain. Paul Dano’s Edward Nashton, aka the Riddler, is the most haunting and unsettling iteration of the villain ever brought to screen, but he still copied a fantastic piece of the Riddler’s more lighthearted live-action history.
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The Riddler has often been depicted as one of Batman’s most extravagant and larger than life antagonists, and this was very evident in Jim Carrey’s depiction of Edward Nygma in 1995’s Batman Forever. Carrey’s Riddler sported a skin-tight, bright green, question mark-covered catsuit during his battles against Val Kilmer’s Dark Knight, which was a far cry from Dano’s Riddler, who donned a Zodiac Killer-like trench coat and hood. Even so, Reddit user MGDpro had now spotted that there was one piece of costume that these two wildly different Batman villains share.
Paul Dano & Jim Carrey’s Riddlers Share One Great Costume Element
Eagle-eyed fans of Batman’s live-action history have spotted that Dano’s Edward Nashton wears the same glasses in The Batman that Carrey’s Edward Nygma wears in Batman Forever. The clear-framed, horned, circular glasses worn by Carrey in 1995 highlighted the eccentricities of Nygma, and formed a baseline for his green eye-mask that he sported when in the Riddler’s comical costume. The same glasses had a similar effect for the civilian guise of Dano’s Nashton, whose eccentricities and outsider-like personality were put front-and-center, forming the motivation for his attacks against Gotham’s elite.
Batman Forever is considered one of the weaker Batman movies, marking Kilmer’s only appearance as Bruce Wayne. Nevertheless, it’s great to see Matt Reeves pay homage to Batman’s history, even in something as small as the Riddlers’ eyewear. Surprisingly, this choice was actually a coincidence. Dano revealed during a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he tried hundreds of pairs of glasses before deciding. “I’m not the guy who’s like, ‘If you don’t see my feet in the shot, I’m going to put on more comfy shoes,’” Dano mentioned, “That’s just not how it works.”
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The fact that this costume choice was a matter of coincidence makes it even more incredible. It perhaps goes to show that both Carrey and Dano had a real handle on who the Riddler is when presenting as a civilian, both tapping into the otherness, eccentricity, and strangeness of the character, though both had very different interpretations of who the Riddler is in his costume and during battle with Batman. It’s possible Dano’s Edward Nashton could return in Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman: Part II, and the much-anticipated sequel could pay homage to new periods of Batman’s live-action history.
The Batman: Part II is currently scheduled to be released on October 1, 2027, with Matt Reeves returning to direct and Robert Pattinson reprising his role of Bruce Wayne.
Did you like Paul Dano’s depiction of the Riddler in The Batman? Let us know in the comments!
