Warner Bros. Pictures has released a brand new TV spot to promote The Batman ahead of its release in March. The 30-second clip, titled “Game” or “The Game,” puts the central focus on one of Batman’s many enemies, the Riddler. In Matt Reeves’ adaption, the Riddler will be played by Paul Dano, a talented actor known for portraying Dwayne Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine.
Matt Reeves’ The Batman will follow Bruce Wayne in his second year of fighting crime, uncovering corruption in Gotham City while pursuing the Riddler, a serial killer who targets Gotham’s elite and seeks to uncover the injustice that plagues Gotham.
It stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne / Batman alongside Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell. Reeves has been working to emphasize Batman’s detective qualities to a greater extent than previous adaptations and fans appear to be pleased.
In the TV spot, first unveiled on the movie giant’s Indonesian YouTube page, Batman can be seen on the lookout for “symbols” that are scattered around the city. For hardcore fans of DC Comics, these mysterious symbols are undoubtedly the work of Edward Nygma himself. The Ridler often scatters small “clues” for his victims to find and he deems these little treasure hunts “games.” In the Riddler’s eyes, everything is a game to be won and he always needs to outsmart his competition.
Many voiceovers are featured over the clips of Batman attempting to track the Riddler down. First, Robert Pattinson’s Batman says, “Like it or not, it’s Riddler’s game now.” Shortly after, we hear Paul Dano’s Riddler say, “I’ve always loved little puzzles.”
After, Batman reveals that he is looking for “more symbols” and as each clip merges with another, the audience can see that these question mark symbols are placed everywhere — some are hiding in plain sight and others are more inconspicuously hidden.
Jeffrey Wright portrays Commissioner Jim Gordon. In “The Game,” audiences get a close-up look at Wright in his full glory. He builds the suspense by saying, “Jesus, his next victim is Bruce Wayne.” It has become clearer ever since the first trailer for The Batman that the Riddler would be a key component and would be the central antagonist of the film.
Throughout the series of trailers that have released since, the Riddler has repeated his iconic riddle, “It can be cruel, poetic or blind, but when it’s denied, it’s violence you may find.” As revealed in previous clips, the answer to the riddle is “justice” — the very thing that Batman supposedly stands for. However, Reeves made it explicitly clear that this version of Bruce Wayne would walk the fine line between justice and injustice. Robert Pattinson himself even weighed in on this analogy, saying that the character will “question the nature of a hero.”
To see Dano’s Riddler come face-to-face with Pattinson’s Batman, Matt Reeves’ The Batman arrives in theaters on March 4, 2022.