The Batman’s Riddler reveals and teases Paul Dano’s ‘DIY’ villain twist

A tweet asking for opinions on how The Riddler will look in Matt Reeves’ upcoming film The Batman put Twitter in a frenzy.

Comparisons varied from Melania Trump to “Hypebeat zodiac sign” to “white rapper from England”To the experience of the order and Wrong size jacket and to wear it out of obligation. While some claim the look is boring, it certainly got people talking.

While The Riddler became a fan favorite in the 2014 Fox series Gotham, Paul Danos iteration in The Batman is the first time in over 25 years that the villain is the focus of the Batman film. Jim Carrey gave Edward Nygma a larger than life evil madness in Batman forever, a recording in line with Frank Gorshin’s scene-taking performance on the Adam West show from the 1960s.

The appearances of Gorshin and Carrey were deviations themselves and changed the character in which Dick Sprang and Bill Finger debuted Detective comics Number 140 in 1948. Obsessed with puzzles and riddles as a child, this character won a school puzzle-solving competition and ended up cheating on Rubes at the Carnival. When he gets bored of everyday puzzles, young Edward, Batman and Robin begin to give clues to his many crimes.

But as Lee Daniels notes Batman: the full storyAfter two successful Riddler bows in the 1940s, Nygma “rested until 1965 – only then would he begin to be recognized as one of Gotham City’s culprits”. This comic reappearance would be adapted in “Hi Diddle Riddle,” the first episode of Batman Aired in 1966.

Between Gorshin and Carrey, there was another memorable Riddler voiced by John Glover in DC’s 90s Animated Characteristics. Batman: The Animated Series imagined Gotham City with police airships and Art Deco vehicles, and Nygma’s classic debut in “If You’re So Smart Why Aren’t You Rich?” go perfectly with the noir impulses of the show. Reinvented as a computer programmer who was betrayed by his employer after his game Riddle of the Minotaur becomes a huge hit, Glover’s Nygma exudes arrogance and shame that go perfectly with his bowler and purple gloves.

PICTURED: Warner Bros. Animation

While Glovers’ Riddler was working, the show used him sparingly. In the now-collector’s article book Batman animated, said Paul Dini that Riddler “had the honor” of being the hardest villain to write because his character was more interested in finding compelling cerebral challenges than wealth or violence, and his looks required the creation of several compelling puzzles.

After its run in the 1990s, Nygma took another decade-long hiatus. Batman Franchise Director Christopher Nolan had exactly one sentence for the character, which was promising in advance The dark knight rises that the villain “won’t be the Riddler”. The 2004 animated series The Batman‘s version of Riddler voiced by Robert Englund of Freddy Krueger provided a radical break for the character and gave a gothic look with long black hair based on Marilyn Manson.

PICTURED: Warner Bros. Animation

For Paul Dano, who has to take on the Hypebeast Zodiac look, there are some perks in a character who has seen as many reboots as The Riddler. Has been reinterpreted multiple times, both on screen and in the comics. there’s more of a clean slate to start over.

Dano told rich that the Zodiac Killer, the never-caught serial killer from Northern California in the 1960s, whose case flared up again after David Fincher’s 2007 film Zodiac, several years as a meme, and a 2020 breakthroughIt is a “grounding force” for the character. (The grungy take too made for a reasonably realistic ARG in the run-up to the film.)

Frank Gorshin and Jim Carrey’s outfits were garish and imposing, loosely based on the concept that a 1960s gang boss would be dressed in a nineties like that Kray brothers. But Dano’s costume, which he told Empire was “very intense,” seems to resemble a world where, instead of threats from massive underworld organizations, they come from individuals.

“I think the potential DIY element… was actually more frightening to me than the more refined or composed designs we might have played with. I found working with the costume very powerful. When you put on something like this, there is a way to let it speak to you and convey something to your body. There is a way to give it a life of its own, ”Dano told Empire.

Obviously the outfit has already developed a life of its own on Twitter.