As a response to some fan casting that we never knew we needed, Redditor BatFlashHunterDesign created a detailed piece of fan art showing what actorTom Hiddlestonwould look like as the Riddler in a futureBatmanmovie. All things considered, it looks pretty great.
Tom Hiddleston has played the villain Loki in a number of MCU movies over the years, until what seemed to behis final appearanceinAvengers: Infinity War. Hiddleston should theoretically have a bit more free time now that his time with Marvel Studios has come to an end. While he likely wasn’t anyone’s first pick to play Edward Nygma / the Riddler, this fan art does look promising, and may be enough to change people’s minds.
While it’s unclear if theRiddlerwill make an appearance in the upcoming movieThe Batman, being directed by Matt Reeves, there have certainly been a number of rumors circling around the Riddler having some part in the movie. The DCEU has wanted to add the Riddler to the mix for some time, with Zack Snyder even revealing that the Riddler was supposed to show up inBatman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, at least in the early drafts. Even though Edward Nygma himself did not appear in the movie, his question mark logo did appear in the background, graffitied in the ruins of Wayne Manor.
In the comics, the Riddler was one ofBatman’s greatest enemies, with his genius intellect and puzzles posing as a serious threat for Bruce Wayne on a number of occasions. Despite this, the Riddler has yet to get a truly great live action adaptation in any of theBatmanmovies over the years. While he did appear inBatman Foreverduring the 90s, where played by Jim Carrey, this version of the Riddler was overly exaggerated, leaving a number of DC fans disappointed.
Shockingly, 2012’sThe Dark Knight Risesalmost featured the Riddler as the primary antagonist. TheDark Knightsequel went through a number of different drafts, with the original concept being about the Joker being released after being declared insane. However, after the death of Heath Ledger, and after working onInception, director Christopher Nolan wanted the movie to be about Batman being tormented by the Riddler, who would have been played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Unfortunately, this concept was scrapped in exchange for the Bane storyline that we saw in the finished movie.
Matt Reeves’The Batmanwould be the perfect opportunity to clear the Riddler’s name, and after seeing this fan art byBatFlashHunterDesign, it would seem that casting Tom Hiddleston would be the perfect way to do it. Tom Hiddleston has proven himself as a great actor to play deceptive villains, so it would be fantastic to see him crossover from Marvel to DC to play one of DC’s greatest villains. Unfortunately,The Batmanstill appears to be in its early development stages, so we will most likely be left with speculation and fan art for quite some time before we actually find out who the main villain will be.
