Saturday Night Live: The Batman’s Paul Dano Makes Surprise Cameo

Paul Dano popped into last night’s Saturday Night Live episode in a pre-recorded segment to help The Batman co-star Zoë Kravtiz look for a cat. Kravitz hosted the episode hot off her debut as Catwoman in The Batman (SNL even fired up the cat signal for her). The Please Don’t Destroy group thought it would be funny to give Kravitz a cat as a gift, but the cat got away. In the process of searching for the cat, the group discovers Dano, who played the Riddler in The Batman, living under their couch. He claims to be researching them for an upcoming film role. You can see the sketch below.

This isn’t the first time a surprise celebrity has shown up in a Please Don’t Destroy sketch on SNL. As referenced in this sketch, Paul Rudd showed up during John Mulaney’s recent hosting turn. 

Paul Dano had to do some research after joining the cast of The Batman. In a recent interview, he confessed to being more of a fan of Marvel’s mutants as a kid.

“It’s the best bit of homework,” Dano told Seth Myers on an episode of Late Night. “And my character has a particular fascination with the Batman in the film, so I just devoured Batman comics the whole time we were shooting. It was just a way to sort of keep it in my system. But yeah, going back to being a kid, I used to collect some comics. I was — I was more of an X-Men kid, but now I’m a Batman superfan. Really, I am. I love it.

“I have to say that being a part of that culture, it’s not something I anticipated liking. I feel like I’m kind of a shy person. But I love the Batman fans, and I’ve loved sharing this film with them, including the comic-book world. That’s been really fun.”

The Batman. The Riddler’s viral website seems to be hinting at a sequel in the works. Warner Bros. hasn’t officially announced a follow-up film yet, but a Penguin-focused spinoff series is headed to HBO Max. There’s also a prequel series percolating, which has shifted focus from a Gotham City police officer to Arkham Asylum. 

Matt Reeves directed The Batman. Robert Pattinson stars as Bruce Wayne,  with Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, Colin Farrell as the Penguin, and Barry Keoghan as a surprising mystery character. The Batman is now playing in theaters.