With less than a month left for its release, the hype for The Batman is at its peak. It will be interesting to see the first superhero movie of the year coming from DC with a whole new take on the caped crusader. In the past few weeks, we have found out certain details about the movie and it has only made fans more excited about the project. The movie will see Batman come across some of the most significant villains we have heard of from the comics. Even though we have found out a lot about the characters in the movie, one character remains shrouded in mystery. This is none other than the prime antagonist of the movie Riddler played by Paul Dano. Some exciting new details regarding the tragic origin of the Riddler from The Batman have been revealed.
Riddler
Ever since it was announced that Paul Dano will be taking on the role of Riddler in the movie, fans have been wondering about this interpretation. The first teaser for the movie didn’t even feature the character and this added to the mystery. The first trailer to feature him actually made the entire character a lot more exciting based on the appearance. This appearance has been compared to a lot of essential things that appear to be like him. Some have even said that the costume design for the character appears to be inspired by a sketch of the Zodiac killer.
It was later announced that the character will be titled Edward Nashton. This is quite different from the title of Edward Nigma associated with the character in DC comics. Other than that, there haven’t been any shots of Dano’s Riddler from the movie during the promotional tour of the movie. Even the synopsis for the movie has indicated a very small amount of details regarding this character. This is rather surprising considering Colin Farrel has stated that his character, the Penguin will have a small role in the movie. But now it seems we have some interesting insight into the character of Edward Nashton.
The Tragic Origin of the Riddler
Ahead of the release of The Batman, Random House has published a book titled, Before The Batman: An Original Movie Novel (The Batman). This is a children’s middle-grade book that dives into the details of the backstory of Bruce Wayne from the movie. There is a lot more than just Bruce Way that the book explores, and we also get to find out about the tragic origin story of the Riddler. It becomes quite apparent that there will be some major changes in terms of both the characters in this interpretation. According to the book, both Edward Nashton and Bruce Wayne come across each other at a very early age but they have completely different upbringings.
Edward Nashton’s character is introduced as someone who is brought up in an orphanage. This orphanage is actually visited by Bruce and his parents when Thomas Wayne was going to announce his run for mayor. Nashton was also was always enthusiastic about riddles and this actually leads him to be the target of a lot of bullying. He was given names like Ed-“Wierd” due to his persona. Later in the story, he gets a job as a food delivery guy. He does this job while finishing his study and attending college. This is also the time when he comes across Bruce Wayne again.
During this period, Bruce returns from his studies to Wayne Manor and starts working on his muscle car. Later, he would start attending car races even though he won’t participate in them right away. This is when he comes across a girl named Dax who is equally enthusiastic about racing. During the first race that Wayne comes to watch, Edward Nashton would be put into danger and he gets furious about these other rich kids. According to him, they aren’t aware of their privilege and he decides to teach them a lesson. This will be the very first case that would motivate Wayne to take on the Batman persona.
An essential thing to notice here is the continuous relationship that Bruce’s character will have with Nashton. Every time Nashton would go out through the orphanage gate he would come across a photo of Bruce and his parents. The photo also has Nashton in the background. Even the other kids at the orphanage would talk about Bruce and the privileges that he has had. There was even a codename Bruce that was given to everyone they felt was overly spoilt. This actually shows that even though Nashton tried to focus on his own priorities at hand Bruce was someone who would come up continuously.
This much detail might not be shown in the movie but some amounts of it might show up as relevant for the movie. Considering the movie has a 3-hour runtime, we can assume that we will get to see Nashton’s backstory is explored. The Batman will be released in theaters worldwide on March 4.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter for more content.
Also Watch:
