Riddler Batman: Who Plays Edward Nygma and Edward Nashton

The Riddler is a Gotham City villain who attacks Batman with puzzles, traps and clues, and he has appeared in four theatrical Batman films across more than fifty years. Each version has a different actor and a different background, so it is easiest to take them one at a time.

Frank Gorshin plays "The Riddler" in Batman (1966), directed by Leslie H. Martinson, where he is billed sixth and joins the Joker, the Penguin and Catwoman in a gang called the United Underworld. Jim Carrey plays "Riddler / Edward Nygma" in Batman Forever (1995), directed by Joel Schumacher, and he is billed third. Conan O'Brien gives "The Riddler (voice)" in The Lego Batman Movie (2017), an animated spin-off directed by Chris McKay. Paul Dano plays "The Riddler" in The Batman (2022), directed by Matt Reeves, billed fifth.

The civilian name changes with the film. Batman Forever credits him as Edward Nygma, an inventor at Wayne Enterprises, while The Batman (2022) unmasks him as Edward Nashton, a forensic accountant. The 1966 film credits only "The Riddler". So, if you are asking whether it is Edward Nygma or Nigma, the Batman Forever credits spell it Nygma. For the wider rogues gallery, see batman villains.

His goal changes with each film: a world ransom in 1966, a stolen mind and a stolen secret in 1995, and a campaign against Gotham's corrupt officials in 2022. Here is how each plot treats him.

Batman (1966). The Riddler, the Joker, the Penguin and Catwoman call themselves the United Underworld. They use a machine that turns people into dust and can bring them back, and they kidnap the members of the Security Council to hold the world to ransom. Batman and Robin survive torpedoes and a bomb, and in the end the villains are beaten and the delegates are restored, though the mixed dust leaves each one speaking and acting like a person from another country.

Batman Forever (1995). Edward Nygma pitches Bruce Wayne a brain wave device and Bruce turns him down. Nygma, furious, becomes the Riddler, and his device secretly drains brain power from viewers to feed his own intelligence. He teams up with Two-Face, learns Batman's real identity from the device, and the pair raid Wayne Manor, wreck the Batcave and kidnap Chase Meridian. On the Riddler's island hideout his machine overloads, and he goes insane.

The Lego Batman Movie (2017). Conan O'Brien voices the Riddler in a film whose plot centers on the Joker's revenge after Batman brushes off their special bond.

The Batman (2022). On Halloween night, the Riddler murders Gotham's mayor and leaves riddles at the scene. The clues show that the mayor was having an affair and that many city officials are paid by the crime boss Carmine Falcone. He goes on to kill the police commissioner and kidnap the district attorney, Gil Colson, forcing Batman to answer riddles while Colson wears a collar bomb. After he shoots Falcone with a sniper rifle, he gives himself up and is unmasked as Edward Nashton. His planted car bombs breach the seawall and flood the city, and his online followers go after the mayor-elect, Bella Reál.

Batman is the Riddler's constant opponent, but the supporting cast around him changes sharply from film to film. In 1966 his relationships are with fellow villains, in 1995 with a rejected employer and a violent partner, and in 2022 with the people he exposes.

Batman and Bruce Wayne. In Batman Forever, the rejection comes from Bruce Wayne himself, and the Riddler later uses his device to discover that Bruce is Batman. In The Batman (2022) he forces Batman to solve riddles while a hostage wears a collar bomb. Batman works with Lieutenant Jim Gordon, played by Jeffrey Wright, to investigate the killings. See bruce wayne and commissioner gordon.

Two-Face. In Batman Forever, Tommy Lee Jones plays Harvey Two-Face, who attacks a circus and kills the Grayson family, which leaves young Dick Grayson orphaned. The Riddler teams up with him. Dick later becomes robin. See two face batman.

The Joker, the Penguin and Catwoman. In Batman (1966), Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith and Lee Meriwether play the other three members of the United Underworld. In The Batman (2022), Colin Farrell's Oz / The Penguin is captured but turns out not to be the police informant. See joker batman, penguin batman and catwoman.

Falcone and Selina Kyle. In The Batman (2022), the Riddler's clues expose Carmine Falcone, John Turturro's mob boss, and he later shoots him. Selina Kyle, played by Zoë Kravitz, learns that Falcone is her father and that he killed her roommate Annika, a thread that runs alongside the Riddler's investigation.

The Riddler is beaten or captured in Batman (1966), Batman Forever and The Batman (2022), and in the last two he ends up in Arkham. Here is the outcome for each.

In Batman (1966), the villains are defeated and the Security Council members are brought back to life unharmed. In Batman Forever, the Riddler's machine overloads and he loses his mind. He is locked in Arkham Asylum, where he makes claims about who Batman really is. In The Batman (2022), Edward Nashton is sent to Arkham State Hospital after giving himself up. His car bombs flood the city, but Batman and Selina stop his followers from killing the mayor-elect and help rescue people trapped in the flooded arena. Nashton later befriends another inmate, and the cast list credits Barry Keoghan as an unseen Arkham prisoner. That leaves the character in custody in his most recent version.

For what comes next, the batman part 2 is in production but paused, with a US date of February 18, 2028 according to TheWrap, and the reporting on the pause does not say whether the Riddler returns.

In my opinion, the best Riddler scene is Dano's collar bomb standoff in The Batman (2022), while Carrey's version is the most distinctive for how it turns a corporate grudge into a villain origin.

In The Batman (2022), the scene where Gil Colson sits with a collar bomb while Batman is forced to answer riddles is where the film's tone locks in. The stakes are a man's life, and Colson dies after refusing to name a police informant. It is a more patient kind of villainy than anything in the earlier films. His surrender after shooting Falcone, followed by the reveal of Edward Nashton as a forensic accountant, also turns a masked menace into an ordinary man with a spreadsheet mind.

In Batman Forever, my favorite beat is Bruce rejecting Nygma's brain wave pitch, because it gives the Riddler a clear reason to become a villain: a rejected inventor turns that into revenge. The ending, where he is locked in Arkham still preoccupied with Batman's identity, fits the bigger and louder house style of the Schumacher films. As such, the Riddler works as the film's wounded ego rather than a killer.

Batman (1966) offers the ensemble version. Frank Gorshin's Riddler is one of four villains, and the film's best joke is the United Underworld's scrambled dust, which leaves each delegate with another nation's accent and manners. If you want the quickest route through all four versions, batman movies in order lists them in release order.