Fans of The Batman won’t be having very many riddles to unravel now that the tie-in viral website has seemingly shut down operations — for now.
The site, rataalada.com, which was active as recently as last week, now has a message from the fictional City of Gotham Police Department stating, “This Domain Has Been Seized.” No more is the usual green text interface that fans had grown accustomed to in order to solve riddles to unlock the film’s behind-the-scenes tidbits, such as photos, videos, and even the question-mark-obsessed villain’s own diaries.
Prior to GCPD’s “seizure” in accordance with a warrant issued by the city’s district attorney, both rataalada.com and youareelrataalada.com were wonderful pieces of viral marketing that tied directly into the film.
“Rata alada” roughly translates “rat with wings,” a clue that is left by Paul Dano’s Riddler for Robert Pattinson’s Batman to solve in the movie. When Colin Ferrell’s Penguin points out the questionable grammar of the phrase “you are el” that precedes the riddle, the Caped Crusader realizes it points to a web address, or URL, rataalada.com. When Batman and Jeffrey Wright’s Jim Gordon navigate to the site in the movie, there’s even more clues to unpack, as well as creepy video messages left by the serial killer.
Answering correctly the final series of riddles that accompanied the website last week unlocked arguably the best behind-the-scenes award from the film so far: a deleted interrogation scene featuring Barry Keoghan’s Joker.
The Batman is in theaters now.