James McAvoy Wants To Play The Riddler

While the X-Men franchise might have distracted from the fact, James McAvoy is a genuinely great actor. He's right up there with the likes of Michael Fassbender, Olivia Colman and Cillian Murphy as the best the UK has at the minute and nobody should let the delivery of his lines in the Dark Phoenix trailer put them off that truth.

Sooner or later, he's going to take on another comic book movie role, what with his Professor X likely now retired thanks to Disney's acquisition of Fox and the mutants. If there's any justice in the world, he'll be given the chance to play the role he actually wants to - The Riddler in a Batman movie.

During a live Q&A on his Instagram (via Fandom), McAvoy was asked who he'd like to play in the DC universe and while qualifiying that "I’ve always thought DC does really good bad guys" he picked out The Riddler.

It's now been long enough since The Riddler appeared on the big screen, as played by Jim Carrey in Batman Forever. He was great, no matter how many people whinge about his performance (including Tommy Lee Jones), but a new take on the character would be widely appreciated.

And given McAvoy's shape-shifting work in Split and Glass - which offered a typecast-breaking insight into McAvoy's ability to play villains - he's all of a sudden an even more intriguing candidate to play someone like Edward Nygma. Let's hope Warner Bros pays attention...