When The Riddler was announced as the main villain in Matt Reeves' "The Batman," there were Bat fans who were skeptical. It's not that the Riddler isn't iconic; he is. But he's usually portrayed as a purveyor of whimsy, a kind of maniacal trickster who plays second fiddle to the more prominent villains of Gotham City.
The first trailer for the film made it look like an emo punk video on MTV2. So the question was: how would Paul Dano's Riddler fit in. Obviously, this Riddler wouldn't be as loud and comic as Jim Carrey's turn in 1995's "Batman Forever." Nor would he don the throwback wardrobe that Cory Michael Smith did to embody a socially awkward Edward Nygma with a split personality on "Gotham." Those two standout performances are the most recent live-action versions of The Riddler. Dano's iteration would need to carve out its own lane lest he be unfavorably compared to what came before.
