WARNING: The following contains possible spoilers from Matt Reeves’ The Batman.
From the Joker to Mr. Freeze, Batman has faced a wide assortment of villains over the years, so when Matt Reeves announced what he was making The Batman, two important questions were immediately asked: Who would play Batman and who would be the villain? The answer to the first question came relatively early when Robert Pattinson was announced as the new Caped Crusader, and last year’s trailer gave a first look at Paul Dano’s masked Riddler. Now, The Batman’s new trailer, which was just released as part of DC’s FanDome, offered more hints about the film’s villain -- maybe even revealing his motive.
The trailer's opening scene showed the Riddler being arrested by the GCPD in a late-night diner and later behind bars. He also appeared on a news broadcast with the headline calling him a serial killer. The people he killed, though, could be of particular importance.
In the trailer, there were three people that the Riddler was confirmed to kill: Police Commissioner Pete Savage, DA Gil Colson and Mayor Don Mitchell. Clearly, he had been killing high-profile targets, and from the looks of things, they were probably corrupt people more worried about padding their pockets than helping the people of Gotham. Particularly, the notes he left said, “No more lies.” So, in a way, he could be playing a version of the people’s vigilante.
There was also a scene that brought everything together. At the 1:15-mark, Bruce Wayne drew lines between five clues written out on the floor. Three of those lines connected to the three names listed already, and the other two said: “Renewal is a lie” and “The sins of my father?.” The former likely had to do with the rich elite lying about rebuilding or revitalizing some part of Gotham, probably economically. The last clue, however, could end up being the driving factor behind everything.
As of now, the clue that said “The sins of my father?” has no meaning, but the implications could be profound. To set the context, Matt Reeves has been clear that something in his film will shake Batman to the core, but he has also been adamant that The Batman will not be an origin tale. That means that Thomas Wayne’s death cannot be a catalyst for events. That notwithstanding, the writing on the floor seems to heavily imply that Batman’s father will somehow be involved in a different way.
The fact that there was a question mark after the phrase also seemed to indicate that Batman will be trying to figure out his father's involvement in the Riddler’s schemes. Thinking logically, though, if Thomas Wayne was already dead, he wouldn't be in the film’s present, which means he had to have been involved in the film’s past. Connecting the dots from there might actually be pretty simple.
If Riddler will, indeed, be playing the part of exposing corruption in Gotham, the revelation that Thomas Wayne was a real problem in Gotham (possibly even as part of an evil, elite Court of Owls) would easily fit the bill for something that would rock Batman’s world. Besides, the Riddler’s character has always been about games, so while cleaning up Gotham’s corruption would be beneficial on its own, exposing Batman as a hypocrite in the process -- because of his father's misdeeds -- would make his plot much more fun.
To see the Riddler’s plot, watch Matt Reeves’ The Batman when it hits theaters on March 4, 2022.
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