Paul Dano, through a comic book centred on his character from The Batman, Riddler, aims to bring the topic of trauma into the popular consciousness in the most pop culture, mainstream way imaginable. Fans have been anticipating Dano’s first foray into the realm of animated, on-page narrative since the March announcement of the project, dubbed Riddler: Year One. Of anticipation of October’s release of the first of six issues in the Black Label Bimonthly Limited Series, Dano spoke with Empire about his goals for the comic.
The story, which will focus on Edward Nashton’s traumatic and dismal early life that led him down the path of becoming a serial killer, is described by the film’s star, who starred in There Will Be Blood, as a “background telling” of how an ordinary accountant named Nashton would transform into one of Batman’s arch nemeses.
Dano claims he developed a “backstory” for the part, which helped him better comprehend the psychotic villain’s motivations for his evil acts. As many actors do, Dano started writing a comic book about Batman before showing it to Batman’s director, Matt Reeves, and producer, Dylan Clark. The Stevan Subic cartoon project got rolling when Dano commented, “I secretly thought, ‘This could be sort of nice as a comic,'” indicating that he had second thoughts about abandoning the idea. Dano calls the narrative of Riddler’s ascent to prominence “an emotional story about pain,” and the magazine also promises to explore a rarely spoken villainous side in superhero stories. Away from the brightly coloured pages of comic book creation, Dano is preparing the release of two films, shooting another, and was recently announced as a cast member in Prime Video’s adaptation of Mr and Mrs Smith for the small screen, where he will appear alongside a lineup that so far includes Maya Erskine, Donald Glover, John Turturro, and Michaela Coel.
Dano has two upcoming feature films: Steven Spielberg’s coming-of-age drama The Fableman and Johan Renck’s science fiction film Spaceman, the latter of which is now in post-production and aiming for a release date in 2023. Dano, meanwhile, will be joining the likes of Sebastian Stan, Pete Davidson, and Seth Rogen in Dumb Money, a film about the GameStop controversy. Before the first issue of Riddler: Year One hits shelves in October (with subsequent bimonthly releases), you may watch The Batman on HBO Max streaming if you haven’t already.