The trailer for The Batman gives us our first real glimpse at Paul Dano's version of The Riddler...unless that's not who we're seeing at all.
The recently released first trailer for The Batman may have given us our first look at Paul Dano as The Riddler, or another villain entirely. DC FanDome's trailers were chock full of exciting reveals and first looks, but the biggest was certainly the first teaser for The Batman, evidenced by the movie's total domination of the social media conversation surrounding the event. While careful not to reveal too much in the way of plot details, the teaser gave fans a whole lot to think on and speculate, and a mind-blowing glimpse at Colin Farrell's transformation into The Penguin.
Also heavily teased in the trailer was the presence of Paul Dano's version of The Riddler. Matt Reeves has been quick to heap praise upon the actor, calling his interpretation of the villain something that no one has seen before. Indeed, Dano is an incredibly experienced actor, having sharpened his chops with dramatic roles such as Prisoners and There Will Be Blood, so if there's anyone who can completely re-contextualize public opinion on a villain who's last on-screen appearance was played by Jim Carrey, it's him.
It's been generally accepted that the masked figure we see at the beginning of the teaser is The Riddler, covered from head to toe so as to not leave any of his DNA on the crime scene. And while it's more than likely that simple, there's also a suggestion among some fans that this might potentially be a misdirect, and that the character at the beginning of the trailer is another villain entirely. Based on his appearance and the way he wraps the face of his victim, there's a slim chance that the character we see might be Hush.
While your opinion on the character of Hush may vary wildly depending on both the medium you were introduced to him through, as well as your feelings on Hush creator Jeph Loeb, he is one of the most persisting villains introduced into Batman lore in the early 2000s. His first appearance was in the graphic novel Batman: Hush, released in 2002, and at first the identity of the masked villain was a mystery to both readers and the Dark Knight himself. Part of the draw of the story was unraveling clues and piecing together a conspiracy at the same time as Batman, and the potential suspect list varied wildly. At one time or another, people believed that Hush could have been anyone from Harvey Dent to Jason Todd. However, the final few issues revealed that Hush was actually Thomas Elliot, a close family friend of Bruce Wayne's who secretly harbored resentment towards him since childhood.
Hush would return in multiple different comic book storylines to plague Bruce Wayne's life after the fact. Not only did Elliot try and go after Selina Kyle for her role in helping Batman uncover his identity, but he eventually took his obsession with Bruce Wayne to the point of sadistic imitation: in the storyline Heart of Hush, the iconic Batman villain underwent plastic surgery in order to replicate Bruce Wayne's face. Thomas Elliot's vendetta against Bruce Wayne is one of the deepest in comic book history, and it can't be understated the lengths he's willing to go to in order to humiliate him.
Even though there hasn't been much talk about the specifics of the plot for The Batman, there's a lot to be gleaned about The Riddler's involvement through watching the trailer and contextualizing the comments that Matt Reeves has already released. During the DC FanDome panel, Reeves made a point to talk about how the movie (and the resulting Gotham PD spinoff) would be tackling the corruption prominent in not just the Gotham City Police Department, but also the city of Gotham as a whole. In fact, the central mystery that Batman is investigating seems poised to be tied to some deep corruption at the heart of the city.
And in the midst of all of this is The Riddler. It seems as if the trailer is suggesting that the villain is perpetrating a spree of murders, each with a clue or hint leading Batman closer to the heart of this grand conspiracy. There even seems to be an implication that Bruce Wayne himself is connected to this insidious plot or at the very least the Waynes in general. His crime spree doesn't seem to be random or simply for the fun of one-upping Batman, the way it's frequently portrayed in the comics; this version of The Riddler seems like he has a crusade of his own; one that ironically mirrors the one that Bruce is on.
Even though the reveal of Batman: Hush is that Thomas Elliot is the masked villain who's been targeting Batman for the past few months, the mystery of the story doesn't end there. After uncovering the truth behind Hush's identity, Batman discovers one final reveal: that The Riddler is the architect behind the entire plot and that Thomas Elliot only found out that Bruce was Batman because The Riddler told him. All of it was a grand scheme designed to break Batman; the only reason The Riddler never reveals Batman's secret identity is that "a riddle that everyone knows the answer to is worthless." The animated film Batman: Hush takes this reveal one step further by changing the ending of Hush's story and making it so that The Riddler is Hush the entire time.
If Hush is actually in The Batman, there's a possibility that he and The Riddler could be working together like in the original story arc. He could be the one actually perpetrating the murders, while The Riddler sits behind the scenes crafting the clues and leaving bread crumbs. This would certainly make sense as to why The Riddler seems to specifically be calling out Batman in the trailer: if he knows Wayne's identity and understands that there's a vendetta between Bruce and Elliot, he might be manipulating that for his own purposes.
While Elliot's rivalry with Bruce Wayne in the comic is rather surface-level, there's always a possibility that Matt Reeves could be expanding on it in the film. Maybe the corruption at the heart of Matt Reeves' new Gotham City that the Waynes are connected to has something to do with Thomas Elliot's family, something that would cause him to join up with The Riddler and help him to bring down Bruce Wayne. While it's ultimately unlikely that Hush will make an appearance in the film, anything is possible with The Batman, and it's precisely that kind of unpredictability that will keep fans guessing and speculating until the movie releases.
