The first trailer of Matt Reeves' The Batman presented the first of The Riddler's brain teasers for the Dark Knight to work through. In the trailer, the scene in which Commissioner Jim Gordon opens a greeting card addressed "to the Batman." The card contains a riddle from the Riddler, which reads: "What does a liar do when he’s dead?" The answer is given on the opposite side of the card in a cryptogram with a variety of different symbols. Now, a fan has seemingly solved the riddle.In a long Twitter thread, Mike Selinker laid out how he went about solving the puzzle in detail. Eventually, he reveals that the answer to the riddle is "He lies still." The punny answer certainly checks out -- lying is all a dead man can do. But the word "lie" has multiple meanings: there's the physical act of lying down and the act of telling a lie. That is where the riddle gets even more interesting.
Lies seem to be a prominent theme throughout the trailer. Within the first 30 seconds, viewers are shown a scene in which a man is being duct taped by the Riddler. When the Riddler is finished and walks away, the man's entire head is covered in duct tape, and the words "No more lies" are written in red capital letters across his face. Moments later, Jim Gordon is seen to be searching through a dark room, and stumbles upon the word "Lies," again written in red capital letters across a wall plastered with newspaper. It's after these two scenes when the Riddler's riddle card, addressed to The Batman, is first opened.
While Selinker's decoding skills have saved fans several agonizing months of waiting for the answer, we still don't know the significance for the movie itself. Riddler definitely doesn't like liars, but it's unclear if he's taunting Batman or calling him out personally. The Riddler has, historically, liked to play games with the Dark Knight, and this is definitely part of that characterization. It also raises some question as to if Riddler knows Bruce Wayne is Batman, and thus lying about his identity. Overall, the riddle's answer just yields more questions.
The Batman is directed by Matt Reeves and co-written by Reeves and Mattson Tomlin. The film stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/The Riddler, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone and Peter Sarsgaard as District Attorney Gil Colson. The Batman is set to be released in theaters on Oct. 1, 2021.