Paul Dano set to play the Riddler in ‘The Batman’

Riddle me this: Who would make a great contemporary Batman villain? That's right! The dude from Looper who was also pretty great in nearly everything he's been in; Paul Dano.

Though Jonah Hill was heavily rumored to play the Riddler (or the Penguin) in the new upcoming Matt Reeves-directed, and Robert Pattinson-starring film The Batman, it looks like there's a new Riddler in town. On Oct. 17, 2019, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Paul Dano will be stepping into the role of the Riddler in the new caped-crusader epic. Dano will join Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman and Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon in the new film. Though the new film won't be released until June, 2021, nearly everything about its production seems exciting. So far, even though certain corners of the internet complained about the casting of Robert Pattinson, nearly everything about his cast seems amazing.

The reason why Dano is such a great choice for the Riddler is there's arguably not been a great Riddler since Frank Gorshin in the old '60s Batman TV series. Sure, Jim Carrey was fine in Batman Forever, but he wasn't truly unhinged the way the Riddler should be. Carrey was goofy. But Paul Dano can do unhinged. Paul Dano is like Shia LaBeouf if the latter was slightly more likable. He's a great actor who doesn't really get the credit he deserves. Go watch the movie Being Flynn right now and tell me I'm wrong. It's great.

In addition to the already pretty solid cast, there doesn't seem to be much that The Batman can screw-up. Let's just hope they avoid even thinking about rebooting yet another version of the Joker. We're all Joker-ed, out, right?

This article originally appeared on Fatherly. Follow @FatherlyHQ on Twitter.