Director Matt Reeves must be smiling to himself somewhere. Warner Bros. Pictures has just released another thrilling trailer for the upcoming The Batman – with the focus now shifted to Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), and finally, Paul Dano’s Riddler and Colin Farrell’s Penguin.

Check it out below:

“If we don’t stand up, no one will,” says Selina Kyle/Catwoman to Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne/Batman in the trailer.

Massive Story Teasers

With The Batman slated for a March 2022 release, the gloves have finally come off.

This time, Warner Bros. has revealed major plot points – so let’s go through the trailer piece by piece, starting with our introduction to Jayme Lawson’s Bella Reál. Bruce silently endures her accusations of hoarding his generational wealth. “You know, you really could be doing more for this city. Your family has a history of philanthropy, but as far as I can tell you’re not doing anything.”

This introduces us to one of the main themes of the film – the power of the Wayne legacy, and what Bruce chooses to do with it.

This is even further highlighted by what follows – a derisive smirk from Bruce, as the trailer flashes scenes of Batman in action.

Since we’re seeing a darker, younger, more raw version of the Batman in this film, it stands that Matt Reeves is looking to capture something of a ‘coming-of-age’ story here.

We may hopefully get to see how Batman goes from tinkering with muscle cars, gadgets, and beating the crap out of goons to becoming a greater force for good – the evolution of vengeance into justice.

Soon, we come across The Riddler, in his first live-action feature length appearance since Jim Carrey’s stint in Batman Forever (1995). Played by Paul Dano, this version of the riddler is much less flamboyant and charismatic – donning a ‘Zodiac Killer’ style outfit:

Gone are the cheesy jokes – Dano’s Riddler is cold, menacing, and more than anything else – seems to have a clear and concise goal in mind.

Much of The Riddler’s key motivations across the Batverse are tied to his goal of exposing Batman’s hypocrisy. After all, how fair is it for ‘downtrodden’ criminals to face off against a multibillionaire with a penchant for violence?

“I’m just here to unmask the truth about this cesspool you call a city,” Dano utters in the trailer. You’re part of this, too.”

The ‘unmasking’ line is immediately followed by Dano snarling out the name of “Bruce Wayne.” Whether the Riddler truly knows Batman’s secret identity or whether this is a clever bit of misleading editing remains to be seen.

There’s also a small Riddler cipher at the very end of the trailer – here’s what it looks like:

The folks over at r/TheBatmanFilm have recently decoded the message – a Spanish insult that translates to ‘you are a winged rat.’

Looks like our new Riddler still has a sense of humour.

Either way, we now know that Batman will have a lot to answer for – both in terms of his heritage as well as his reasons for donning the cowl.

The Bat and the Cat

As far as Catwoman goes, she’s a fairly common choice for live action series’ with the Caped Crusader – with iconic performances and character treatments ranging from The Dark Knight Rises’ Anne Hathaway, to Julie Newmar’s charming version from the 1960s TV show.

Interestingly, Zoë Kravitz’s slick, in-your-face seductive new take on the character makes a great comic-book reference that some longtime fans will notice. As we see contrasting scenes of Batman and Catwoman interacting, the latter mentions in a voiceover – “The Bat and the Cat. It’s got a nice ring.”

While it makes for a catchy trailer title, it also happens to be a common quip used across several iterations of the series – from animated series’ episodes, to a 5-part comic series that explored Batgirl and Catwoman’s first meeting.

There’s even a small shot-homage to the 1999 Batman comic, Dark Victory #1 – take a look above.

With Reeves’ slick blend of noir elements, hard-hitting action, and super-stylized characters, The Batman is shaping up to be one of next year’s most definitive superhero flicks – we can’t wait for more details, so stay tuned.

The Batman releases on March 4th, 2022.

(Image Sources: DC Comics, Warner Bros. Entertainment)