The end of The Batman featured a surprising cameo from Barry Keoghan. The actor played an Unnamed Arkham Patient, who clearly was none other than Batman’s archnemesis, The Joker. Though neither the character is named nor completely shown in the film, the maniacal laughter and the creepy voice were enough to figure out Keoghan’s role in the film, which already was doing rounds in rumors before the release. Matt Reeves has earlier talked about his take on Joker, breaking down Keoghan’s interpretation of the character. Now, The Batman director has recently released a deleted scene, featuring an extended appearance of Keoghan’s Joker, revealing his look, and putting him in a direct, intense conversation with Robert Pattinson’s Batman.
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The scene features Batman trying to seek help from the Joker in understanding the motives of Riddler and learn why he’s targeting Gotham’s high profilers. Opening up about the scene, which the director surprised the audience with, Reeves talked to Variety of his approach to set and shoot the scene. Speaking on how Batman, in all his rage, would accept to go to Joker for help, director Matt Reeves said:
Batman and Joker Have A History In the Batverse
I thought he would be really insecure about this, and he’d probably want to find some way to get into the [Riddler’s] mindset, like in Manhunter or Mindhunter – this idea of profiling somebody, so you can predict his next move.
There’s not much revealed about what led the two to come face to face, but by Joker’s words, it seemed that the clown prince of crime has taken a great interest in his adversary. The sequence further adds depth to the scene where Paul Dano’s Riddler converses with Joker while sharing a laugh in the film. It connects the dots between Joker’s old rivalry with Batman and his interest in a collaboration between the two villains.
You realize that they have a relationship and that this guy obviously did something, and Batman somehow got him into Arkham.
Reeves has indicated that the appearance of Joker in the film doesn’t really confirm any plans for a Batman sequel featuring Joker. The director has earlier said that he doesn’t want to rush in with The Batman 2 and that the sequel could feature another villain. However, the new look of this fresh iteration of Joker will surely put fans on debate and has a high probability of setting up a sequel or the Arkham spin-off series.
