‘The Batman’ star is ‘curious’ to see what comes next for their iconic villain

A proven fact of the superhero genre is that too many villains can often spoil the cinematic broth, but Matt Reeves definitely didn’t get the memo when he was piecing together his cast for The Batman.

As well as Paul Dano’s unsettlingly creepy Edward Nashton, John Turturro’s Carmine Falcone, and Colin Farrell’s scene-stealing Penguin, the acclaimed reboot even managed to find the time to have Barry Keoghan make a surprise cameo as the Joker. Only one of those antagonists was killed off before the credits rolled, though, so Gotham’s rogues’ gallery is filling up fast.

All we know about the in-development sequel is that it exists, with neither Reeves nor any of his creative counterparts firming up any plot or character details. However, we can surely expect the Joker to return given his open-ended contributions, while Oswald Cobblepot getting his own HBO Max series will no doubt lead to his big screen return.

That only leaves Dano’s Riddler, then, with the actor admitting to ComicBook that he’d “probably” show up if he was invited back.

“If they wanted there to be one, I’d probably be there. But I actually have not thought a whole lot about it, and I find it curious myself that I’ve somehow spent even more time with this character, because someone asked me, when we were doing Batman press, ‘Did you take anything home from the set?’ And I was like, ‘No.’ Of Edward’s. I was like, I don’t need anything of that guy in my home. Jokingly.

And then here I am, and I have spent, on and off, a year or two writing this comic and that was really, it felt right for the medium of comics, because it’s a really good way to explore internal monologue. Where film, I think, voiceover only holds to a certain degree. And this kind of offers the chance to get into what a person like that, that sort of obsessive thinking, almost like an inner monologue that picks up throughout the comic. And so not a lot of my attention has gone towards his future. Maybe it will someday.””

That’s not exactly a confirmation, but given the rave reviews that greeted Dano’s performance in The Batman, he could even step into the Joker’s shoes by popping up for a quick guest stop from behind bars as Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight seeks information about whoever his latest adversary turns out to be.