Popsugar Entertainment The Batman The Batman Trailer Riddle — Here's the Puzzling Solution Riddle Me Impressed With How Fast DC Fans Solved The Riddle in the Trailer For The Batman 27 August 2020 by Chanel Vargas First Published: 26 August 2020 Fans of a good brain teaser will know that The Riddler is basically a walking puzzle factory, and his latest riddle in the trailer for The Batman already has fans in full-on detective mode. In the trailer, a card packaged in a green envelope arrives addressed to "The Batman." Inside, the card poses a handwritten question: "What does a liar do when he's dead?" Followed by a set of unfamiliar symbols that seem to be hiding some kind of message, the card continues, "Haven't a clue? Let's play a game, just me and you . . ." In a feat that would make both Commissioner Gordon and Alfred proud, DC fans have already solved the puzzling riddle using some impressive word-to-letter correlations, and the breakdown is just as mind-boggling as the original clue. In a Twitter thread, game designer Mike Selinker explained exactly how he solved the puzzle. Keep reading for the final solution and to see exactly how the cryptic symbols translate to an ominous message that has us hoping emo Robert Pattinson Batman can solve this riddle for himself in record time. Related: So, Exactly Which Villains Is Bruce Wayne Dealing With in The Batman? In the new #TheBatmanTrailer, the Riddler leaves a card with the question “What does a liar do when he’s dead?” I could just solve it like a riddle (and did), but it’s a good opportunity to show how to solve a puzzle by brute force, so you’re sure of the answer. Here goes. (1/12) pic.twitter.com/sHveBmU2Pt— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 1 / 13 The characters here are in this pattern: 123425 56433I will presume the line break is meant to be a word break, though that doesn’t presume no other word breaks exist. (2/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 2 / 13 3 is a double letter at the end of a 5-letter word. Most common letters don’t do that. It’s likely one of these: E, L, or S. It’s not crazy to imagine it as D, F, N, or T. MAFIA’S STIFF? Nah. Unless Gorilla Grodd’s in this movie, I think we can dispense with these options. (3/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 3 / 13 Putting aside RUPEE and PUREE, the only likely 5-letter strings to end in EE with no other Es are THREE, AGREE, and TO SEE. THREE would make the first word xxxRxT, but the 2nd and 5th letter can’t be E (no SECRET THREE). I don’t like LABRAT or POIROT, so it’s not THREE. (4/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 4 / 13 AGREE gets nothing too. However, TO SEE is possible. The thematic BAT SAT TO SEE (or, per Selina, CAT SAT TO SEE) might work. But this doesn’t really answer the Riddler’s question. It’s not -EE. (5/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 5 / 13 How about xxxSS? Lots more possibilities there. ABYSS, CLASS, CHESS, GLASS, PRESS, and the likable GUESS, for example. How to narrow those down? Well, again we have the two letters in the 2nd and 5th spots of the first word. (6/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 6 / 13 The only consonant I like there is N. Let’s try ?NS?N? ???SS. I love INSANE there, but INSANE EX ASS might be funny, but isn’t it. I don’t see anything with IN SONG either. UNSENT TRESS? UNSEND DRESS? Nope. It’s not an N, so it’s probably not a consonant. (7/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 7 / 13 That leaves vowels in those 2nd and 5th slots. MISFIT is nice, but TxFSS reveals a problem here. That fourth letter needs to ALSO be a vowel. Nothing seems work here: MISAIM, ROSE OF… It’s a dead end. The double 3 isn’t SS. (8/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 8 / 13 That leaves LL (wait, is this a Superman movie?). Since the letter before that has to be a vowel, now I think we’re down to three possibilities for the second line: DRILL, SxxLL, and a two-word phrase like A WILL. (9/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 9 / 13 xxLIxD DRILL is only possible as BELIED DRILL and HE LIED DRILL, both terrible. If it’s ??L??A A xxLL, all I got is SILVIA, which means nothing to me. If this is LL, it’s xxLxxS SxxLL. (10/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 10 / 13 All the SxELL options fell apart. BILE IS SWELL? Gibberish. JULIUS S(h/k/p/t/w)ILL didn’t make much sense (Julius Schwartz, maybe)? I then alit on TALIA’S SKILL as a totally plausible option. But I don’t see an apostrophe character. It’s not ’S. (11/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 11 / 13 Finally, I considered xELIES SxILL. BELIES SKILL is okay, but it seems more likely that we break it in the first line as HE LIES. And the best word to follow that is STILL. So we can conclude this is the very punny HE LIES STILL. And that’s how you solve a cryptogram! (12/12)— Mike Selinker (@mikeselinker) August 23, 2020 12 / 13 13 / 13 The BatmanBrain TeasersEntertainment NewsMoviesBatman