Playing The Riddler in Matt Reeves’ The Batman left such an impression on Paul Dano, that he’s written a comic book called The Riddler: Year One. The title is obviously based on Frank Miller’s iconic book Batman: Year One, and takes a similar approach in reimagining an origin story, this time for the legendary villain.
A trailer for The Riddler: Year One has been released, in which Dano discusses the book with The Batman director Matt Reeves. The first issue of the book is out now, and available for purchase. In the trailer, Dano discusses the book coming out of the backstory work he did as an actor portraying Edward Nashton, who becomes The Riddler.
He discussed his ideas with Reeves while making the film, who said it should be a comic. It’s a Riddler origin comic, but tied to the version of The Riddler that we see in The Batman (2022). Dano says that getting to geek out about Batman’s history really gripped him. “The idea here was to enter the comic in a really subjective way, so a lot of this is about somebody like Edward Nashton and what is going on inside his head.”
Dano continues; “And I always felt like the only positive affirmation Edward Nashton has ever gotten in his entire life was from solving riddles or playing games.” The spin-off origin story is a six-issue bi-monthly limited DC Black Label comic book series, written by Dano along with illustrator Stevan Subic.
It is not yet known if Dano will be reprising his role as The Riddler in the sequel to The Batman. It seems more likely that the sequel will focus on Barry Keoghan’s Joker as the main villain, but nothing is currently set in stone. The Batman made $770 million when it was released in March 2022.
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