For the first time since Batman Forever in 1995, the Riddler will be one of the main villains on the big screen in The Batman. Paul Dano will portray Edward Nashton/The Riddler as an enigmatic serial killer who pushes Robert Pattinson’s Batman to his limits. However, there’s more to the Riddler’s plan than meets the eye. Via The Wrap, director Matt Reeves spoke to Moviemaker Magazine and shed some light on Riddler’s motivations.
“The premise of the movie is that the Riddler is kind of molded in an almost Zodiac Killer sort of mode, and is killing very prominent figures in Gotham, and they are the pillars of society,” said Reeves. “These are supposedly legitimate figures. It begins with the mayor, and then it escalates from there. And in the wake of the murders, he reveals the ways in which these people were not everything they said they were, and you start to realize there’s some kind of association. And so just like Woodward and Bernstein, you’ve got Gordon and Batman trying to follow the clues to try and make sense of this thing in a classic kind-of-detective story way.”
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Reeves also reiterated his desire to tell a detective story with Batman, while adding some horror and thriller elements as well.
“This idea of a place that is corrupt, and you try to swim against the tide in order to fight against it and make a difference, is quintessential Batman,” noted Reeves. “At the center of those noir stories is almost always the detective, right? And that’s why he is the world’s greatest detective. So this story is, in addition to being almost a horror movie, and a thriller, and an action movie, at its core, it’s also very much a detective story. It’s very narrative.”
The Batman will hit theaters on Friday, March 4.
Are you more intrigued by the Riddler now that you know what he’s trying to accomplish? Let us know in the comment section below!
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