The Batman Unmasks In New Japanese Trailer

Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne is dealing with a supervillain stalker in the new Japanese trailer for Matt Reeves' upcoming reboot "The Batman." Set during the early years of Bruce's Batmanning career, the film will feature Paul Dano's Edward Nashton, aka the Riddler, as its primary antagonist — and he'll do just about anything to get Bruce's attention.

Murdering a politican? He'll do it. Driving a car into a funeral? Riddler has the dedication. Building a wall collage of newspaper clippings about Bruce Wayne with his eyes scratched out in the photos? Riddler has the arts and crafts skills. It wouldn't be at all surprising if he's made an effigy of Bruce out of used chewing gum like Helga in "Hey Arnold!"

These antics eventually succeed in getting Batman's attention, as seen in the new trailer below, which suggests that the Riddler's provocations push Batman to reveal his true face.

It could just be a trick of editing, but the end of the trailer definitely suggests that Bruce Wayne will remove his cowl in front of the Riddler — a dangerous and intriguing move. One possible explanation for Bruce being willing to unmask is that the Riddler's eyesight is too poor to make out Bruce's face anyway; every time we've seen him in the previous trailers he has been wearing very thick glasses. If he's not wearing them when Bruce shows his face, it's likely that all he'll be able to see is a pale blob with a smear of black eye make-up.

This scene of Batman confronting a taunting supervillain, who has been captured but doesn't seem particularly troubled about his predicament, is bound to draw comparisons to the interrogation scene in "The Dark Knight," but there are certainly worse things to be compared to. Unlike the Joker, who famously "just wanted to watch the world burn," Riddler appears to hold a strong disgust for the corruption in Gotham City (he has a point, there is quite a lot of it). A new line featured in this trailer sees him declaring his intention to "unmask the truth about this city," telling Bruce, "You're a part of this, too." 

Exactly what Riddler's beef with Bruce Wayne is remains to be seen (when Bruce asks how he's a part of it, Riddler simply replies, "You'll see.") Given the wall collage, it does appear that Ed has a specific vendetta against Bruce Wayne the billionaire, rather than Batman the vigilante. Does he somehow know who lurks behind the mask, or is he searching for an answer to that question?

"The Batman" arrives in theaters on March 4, 2022.