We finally got our first look at The Batman during this Saturday’s DC FanDome, with the teaser trailer not only introducing us to Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight but also setting up his battle of wits with the Riddler, as played by Paul Dano.
The preview opened with Jeffrey Wright’s Commissioner Gordon bringing Batman in on a bizarre murder case, where the victim was found along with a green note addressed to the vigilante. As is the Prince of Puzzles’ M.O., the card included a riddle on one side and a coded answer on the other, one clearly meant to test the vigilante’s brain power.
Maybe we don’t need Bats to think this one out for us, though, as several fans have already cracked the Riddler’s code. First of all, the question posed was: “What does a liar do when he’s dead?” And as revealed by a few folks online, the coded message reads: “He lies still.”
Twitter user Andrew Lane was among those who cracked it, even showing us his workings. In the replies, he explained that he analyzed the coded symbols for recurring ones and then used a substitution method based on the word “Batman.”
So hyped for Matt Reeve’s Batman Movie, I decided to solve The Riddler’s code. #TheBatman pic.twitter.com/vsxVxucedv
— Andrew (@TheMasterD101) August 23, 2020
Game designer Mike Selinker is another one who solved the mystery, explaining to his followers his method for how you can always crack a code like this one through sheer brute force.
In the new #TheBatmanTrailer, the Riddler leaves a card with the question “What does a liar do when he’s dead?” I could just solve it like a riddle (and did), but it’s a good opportunity to show how to solve a puzzle by brute force, so you’re sure of the answer. Here goes. (1/12) pic.twitter.com/sHveBmU2Pt
— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020
As for how this ties into the film’s storyline, Riddler clearly had a low opinion of whoever it was he murdered by suffocating them with duct tape, as he also scrawled “No more lies” over their makeshift mask in blood. That’s the mystery that we’ll see unfold and Bruce Wayne will have to get to the bottom of in the movie, meeting others from Gotham’s underworld – such as the Penguin (Colin Farrell) and Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz) – along the way.
The Batman is due to start shooting again soon in the U.K. ahead of its release in theaters next October.