In the umpteen years main as much as the premiere of The Batman, the movie’s trailers all needed to make one factor abundantly unclear: what the Riddler, performed by Paul Dano, appeared like underneath his masks. Although I stayed away from spending three hours in a theater to observe the latest cinematic outing of the Dark Knight, I’ve been on pins and needles ready to seek out out. Now that The Batman hit HBO Max I’ve lastly acquired the reply to this riddle, and boy, was it definitely worth the wait.

First, let’s all keep in mind how we received right here. While the film’s varied trailers weren’t shy about exhibiting the Riddler in his cold-weather navy masks, the one imaginative and prescient of the person beneath was a behind-the-shoulder view that solely gave us the trace of the glasses (…we’d seen him carrying on the surface of the masks):

The refusal to indicate extra constructed an intense quantity of pleasure. Why not present us his face except there was a shock in retailer? And boy, was there! When he circled to lastly reveal the person behind the masks, I used to be agape. I imply, how might we ever have guessed that critically-acclaimed, well-known character actor Paul Dano might remodel himself into this?!

When I first heard of Dano’s casting, like most of us, I had assumed the Riddler’s true id would look one thing like… effectively… Paul Dano. This is what I had in thoughts:

Which is why this gorgeous reveal…

…had such an infinite payoff! A payoff that wouldn’t have been attainable if The Batman hadn’t so resolutely teased it, due to the savvy advertising choice designed to construct fan pleasure through the years the film was in manufacturing. In a really possible way, it was extra highly effective than the same alternative within the last Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer, which solely confirmed the torsos of mysterious Ghostbusters, one in all which spoke with Bill Murray’s voice, tantalizing followers with the likelihood that Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson may be returning as their beloved unique characters within the movie regardless of that this was already a well known and extremely publicized truth.

I imply, rattling!

The Batman, a really lengthy film through which the Penguin provides Batman a Spanish lesson, is presently on HBO Max.

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