Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Batman.
Barry Keoghan’s Joker debuted in The Batman during a small scene towards the end of the movie, but it’s the deleted Joker scene that sets up the villain’s future in the franchise. While The Batman features three major Batman villains in the Riddler (Paul Dano), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and the Penguin (Colin Farrell), the movie still managed to also introduce a brand new version of the Joker. Keoghan will be the seventh actor to play an iteration of the character in live-action, the third in the last six years to appear in a theatrical movie.
Matt Reeves' The Batman chose not to have a proper post-credits scene in the typical MCU fashion, but the movie did reserve its final minutes to set up what could be the next major villain in the franchise. Now locked in Arkham, the Riddler is displayed having found a new friend in his cell neighbor – one with a peculiar sense of humor and who encourages Edward’s methods. The moment between Riddler and Joker in The Batman shows little of the new version of the clown, but a now released deleted The Batman scene offered a much better look at what Matt Reeves and Barry Keoghan have in mind for the character moving forward.
In the deleted scene, which would have taken place in a latter portion of the movie, Batman (Robert Pattinson) goes to Arkham to speak with an unnamed prisoner. The scene borrows heavily from The Silence of the Lambs' concept, with Batman asking for a prisoner's help to understand the mind and modus operandi of the serial killer terrorizing Gotham. In this way, despite only five minutes together and a limited amount of dialogue, Robert Pattinson and Barry Keoghan have already revealed much of their characters' fascinating dynamic that is likely to be further explored in The Batman 2.
Will Joker Be The Batman 2's Villain - What The Director Has Said
Despite the shocking reveal of the Joker at the end of The Batman and the deleted scene, director Matt Reeves was keen during The Batman's press tour to highlight that the Joker won't necessarily be The Batman 2’s villain. In this way, Reeves having the Joker at the end of The Batman was not meant to reveal what the next movie would be about, but rather a way to show how things will still get a lot worse in Gotham before they start to get better in his Batman universe. This is a similar approach to what Christopher Nolan achieves in Batman Begins, which sees the Joker being teased at the end of the movie despite the director guaranteeing he envisioned the movie as a finite story that did not need a sequel. Regarding the Joker's role in The Batman sequel, here's what Matt Reeves had to say:
"The scene is not meant to be there to say, like, 'Oh, there's an easter egg, the next movie is X.'. Like, I don't know that the Joker would be in the next movie, but I can tell you is that here's what you're seeing is an early days version of the character, and trouble, as always, is brewing in Gotham."
That considered, the fact that a rising star like Barry Keoghan has already been cast in the role and that Matt Reeves and the creative team have already come up with a visual and backstory for the new Joker indicates that the character will be a part of the future of the franchise. The Batman’s deleted scene also indicates that Batman and the Joker already have a history, which means the director and writers went to the length of creating at least a tertiary backstory for the villain. As a result, all of this indicates that the Joker's appearance in The Batman was not gratuitous and will eventually lead to a bigger narrative down the line.
Even if the Joker isn’t the main villain in The Batman 2, something that would help to avoid direct comparisons to Nolan's The Dark Knight, Batman's greatest foe could be in the sequel in a limited role. A dynamic between Batman and the Joker still absent in the caped crusader films is having the Joker be not the main threat in the story but rather an obstacle that appears in Batman's way during a mission. For that to happen, the Joker doesn't even necessarily have to be out of Arkham, as The Silence of the Lambs' type of dynamic setup in The Batman can continue to work here.
How The Batman's Deleted Joker Scene Sets Up More
The Batman does a great job of establishing the origins of Batman’s villains, but it's hard for the Joker not to draw attention away from the movie's other antagonists. Although quite short, The Batman’s deleted scene already establishes a strong connection between hero and villain, largely because this future Joker has already faced Batman before - setting the stage for what could be an exciting dynamic in the future. In this way, there’s already a symbiotic relationship between hero and villain here, with Joker being able to point out things about Batman’s personality that Pattinson's Dark Knight is reluctant to admit. Batman can also recognize that this criminal is different from any other, thus explaining why he went to him to understand more about the Riddler. Considering how Batman will still encounter several other dangerous villains on his journey to becoming a complete crime fighter, it's important that his connection with the Joker is already laid out – ensuring the future Clown Prince of Crime will be Batman's great nemesis despite whatever may happen in his universe's future.
The Batman's deleted scene also sets up how the Joker escapes Arkham. A small detail in the scene reveals the paperclip that was holding together the files delivered by Batman was missing when the Joker returned them. That strongly suggests the villain took the paperclip, which could be used to unlock something or to manufacture a weapon. Although it is a deleted scene that may or may not be considered canon, this paperclip detail shows that The Batman already intended to set up the Joker's escape from Arkham.
The Batman 2 Can Be Joker's True Origin Story
Another of Matt Reeves' intentions was to show how The Batman's Joker is still not the Joker audiences are used to. Instead of telling the origins of Batman, Matt Reeves opted to tell the origin of Batman's rogues gallery - and the same approach is used for the Joker. In this way, Barry Keoghan's unnamed criminal from Arkham probably doesn't even go by the name of Joker yet and could have been incarcerated in Arkham right after committing his first major crime. This lack of tangible information on the character means that The Batman 2 could well be the Joker's true origin story.
With Batman an established hero and a vacuum of power in Gotham after Falcone's death, there is no better time for the Joker to cement himself as the most dangerous element in Gotham. This situation will also be potentiated by the current state of public disorder in Gotham following the flood caused by the Riddler. In a setting similar to the No Man's Land comic, The Batman 2 could see the villains trying to use the chaos in Gotham to thrive, and no Batman villain thrives on chaos better than the Joker.
Given how Batman already existed in The Batman but only became the true version of the hero by the end of the film, The Batman 2 could be about the Joker going through that same type of journey. In this way, The Batman 2 would set Keoghan’s version of the Joker apart from the others and offer an origin story for the character unseen in live-action before. While it remains to be seen what the story of The Batman 2 will be and how the Joker can contribute to it, the myriad directions Reeves can take Keoghan's Joker in appear scintillating.
