Paul Dano Cast As The Riddler For Matt Reeves ‘The Batman’
Matt Reeves has found another villain for ‘The Batman’, as it is announced Paul Dano will be playing The Riddler in the upcoming film.
The movie, which is due in June 2021, sees Robert Pattinson take over the mantle of the Bat, with ‘Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright starring as Commissioner Gordon and Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman. The film is being described as a more grounded take than we’ve seen before, with Batman facing a substantial rogue’s gallery of enemies.
It had previously been reported that Jonah Hill was in talks to take on a villain role, but it has now been confirmed he opted against taking the part. Although it was not disclosed which villain Hill was being lined up for, it seems that part may have been The Ridder, so when Hill past, Dano was offered the role and accepted.
Paul Dano is an actor, director, and screenwriter who has starred in films such as ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, ’12 Years a Slave’, and ‘There Will Be Blood’, which earned him a BAFTA nomination for his portrayal of twins Paul and Eli Sunday. He also earned a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of musician Brian Wilson in the 2005 movie ‘Love & Mercy’. More recently, he stepped behind the camera, making his directorial debut with the film ‘Wildlife’ starring Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal.
The Riddler, aka Edward Nigma, was created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, and first appeared in Detective Comics in 1948. Whilst he started out as a criminal trickster, in more recent years he has been portrayed as a person with an obsessive compulsion to leave riddles for the caped crusader to solve. Despite having a genius-level intellect, his compulsion for riddles and traps, even if he knows it makes him more likely to be caught, is often his downfall.
As one of the oldest characters in Batman’s rogue’s gallery, he has been portrayed various times on screen before. Frank Gorshin’s Emmy-nominated version in the ‘Batman ’66’ tv series was more of manic and over-the-top, much like the version played by Jim Carrey in the 1995 film ‘Batman Forever’. More recently we saw Cory Michael Smith take on the part in ‘Gotham’ which was a more grounded portrayal of a man battling his inner demons and duel personality. The version played by Dano will apparently use the name Edward Nashton, which was the original name of the character in the comic books before it was changed to Edward Nigma.
Matt Reeves is set to direct ‘The Batman’ with a Reeves co-writing the script alongside Mattson Tomlin. Production is due to begin at some point in January 2020 in London.
‘The Batman’ is due to hit theatres worldwide on Friday, 25th June 2021.
