The Batmanhas gone interactive for its latest promotional push, which sees the film’s villainThe Riddler blurring the lines between fiction and realitywith his own secret website. The site recently evolved into a set of riddles for fans of the DC franchise to solve with a reward of some Gotham City Police Department Batman Sketches.Fans discovered the hidden site earlier this month, but an update has given fans an interactive experience that is likely to be built on in the coming months untilThe Batmanis released in March 2022.
The website’s discovery was made after promotional material forThe Batmanbegan including symbols that appeared to be a code that fans were eager to crack in hope of making some kind of discovery about the plot of the film. Instead, they were left with a bizarre message which in its actual form read “You are el rata alada”, or as anyone who can work out these things will tell you, the English translation is “You are a winged rat.” Of course, this sounds pretty much like nothing but an insult being hurled at Robert Pattinson’s Batman, until you remember that this is all linked to the character of The Riddler. We all remember the mystery and enigma riddle fromBatman Forever, which led Val Kilmer’s Caped Crusader to work out that Mr. E Nigma was the Riddler. This time around we have “You are el” which some clever people quickly deduced sounded very much like “URL”, and once they turned the rest of the code into a website name, they came out with “www.rataalada.com” and discovered a site containing just static and a question mark until it all changed today.
The release of anew motion poster forThe Batmanbrought with it a simulated conversation with The Riddler being added to the website, giving fans the chance to pit their wits against the deranged villain. If you manage to solve the riddles posed, and they are tricky, then a series of sketches of Batman appear on screen, from the archives of the GCPD. What is more intriguing is that the text on screen has The Riddler promising he will return, which certainly suggests that they are going to have more fun with the site in the lead up to the movie’s release, and we can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
The Batmandoesn’t arrive in cinemas until March 4th, so there is still plenty time for the marketing team to really go to town on the site now fans are aware of its presence. For now, this is the official information we know about what we will be getting from the movie when it arrives in form of the official synopsis:
Two years of stalking the streets as the Batman, striking fear into the hearts of criminals, has led Bruce Wayne deep into the shadows of Gotham City. With only a few trusted allies — Alfred Pennyworth, Lt. James Gordon — amongst the city’s corrupt network of officials and high-profile figures, the lone vigilante has established himself as the sole embodiment of vengeance amongst his fellow citizens.
When a killer targets Gotham’s elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues sends the World’s Greatest Detective on an investigation into the underworld, where he encounters such characters as Selina Kyle/aka Catwoman, Oswald Cobblepot/aka the Penguin, Carmine Falcone, and Edward Nashton/aka the Riddler. As the evidence begins to lead closer to home and the scale of the perpetrator’s plans becomes clear, Batman must forge new relationships, unmask the culprit, and bring justice to the abuse of power and corruption that has long plagued Gotham City.
