Warning! MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for The Batman.
According to director Matt Reeves, an earlier scene featuring Barry Keoghan’s character was cut from The Batman. Keoghan’s character, referred to in the film’s credits as Unnamed Arkham Prisoner, has been revealed to be an early version of Batman’s notorious archnemesis, The Joker. Prior to the film’s release, it had been speculated that Keoghan had been cast as The Joker, but news reports and leaked set photos seemed to confirm that he was instead playing GCPD officer Stanley Merkel. This character does not appear in the finished film and Keoghan’s scenes as Merkel were apparently only filmed to conceal his real role.
Keoghan’s Joker only appears in one scene towards the end of the finished film. In this scene, he consoles and befriends Paul Dano’s Riddler, who is clearly devastated by his defeat at the hands of Batman and subsequent incarceration at Arkham. We never get a clear look at Keoghan’s Joker, but the character’s identity is made clear by his green-tinged hair, sinister smile and maniacal laugh. The scene ends with both characters cackling in their respective cells and heavily suggests that the two iconic supervillains will form a potentially devastating alliance.
Now, in interviews with IGN and Collider, Reeves has revealed that he filmed another scene in which Keoghan’s Joker actually met Robert Pattinson’s Batman. In this deleted scene, it is made clear that Batman and The Joker – who is apparently yet to start referring to himself as The Joker - have already encountered each other prior to the events of the film. Unnerved by the letters Riddler has been addressing to him at murder scenes, Batman decides to create a psychological profile of The Riddler. Part of this process involves attempting to gain an insight into Riddler’s mind by speaking to The Joker, who is a similar criminal. Reeves revealed that he liked this scene and is keen for audiences to see it, but removed it because he felt it wasn't necessary for the film's larger narrative. Quotes from both interviews with Reeves are viewable below.
“There is a scene that I would love the audience to see that I didn’t put in. Not because anyone asked me to cut it, but because I didn’t think that within the larger narrative it worked, that it was necessary. But it’s a really cool scene with that same unseen prisoner in Arkham. There was an earlier scene where Batman, because he’s getting these cards and letters from the Riddler, and he’s thinking, ‘why is this guy writing to me? I’m supposed to be anonymous and he’s putting a lens on me. I don’t like that,’ and so he goes to kind of profile this kind of serial killer." - Matt Reeves, via Collider
"He goes to see another killer that he's clearly had an experience with in these first two years. And this killer in this story is not yet the character that we come to know, right? So everybody's in their infancy. So in the comics, these characters often declare their alter egos in response to the fact that there's a Batman out there. And so here, we have a Joker who's not yet the Joker." - Matt Reeves, via IGN
The scene Reeves describes is very reminiscent of Jonathan Demme’s Silence of The Lambs, in which FBI Agent Clarice Starling interviews incarcerated cannibal Hannibal Lecter, believing his insights will help her catch serial killer Buffalo Bill. It also echoes the events of The Long Halloween, an iconic Batman comic story by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, which is clearly a major influence on The Batman’s narrative and tone. In The Long Halloween, Batman visits The Calendar Man in Arkham, hoping he’ll be able to help solve a case involving several holiday-themed murders.
The concept of a proto-Joker was previously explored in Gotham, in which Cameron Monaghan played criminal genius twin brothers Jerome and Jeramiah Valeska. Both of these characters displayed traits that most comic book fans would associate with The Joker, but neither of them were ever explicitly referred to as such during the show’s run. It will be interesting to see if this proto-Joker concept will be be developed in future movies. Before then, fans will almost certainly enjoy this exciting deleted scene from The Batman when it is eventually released on home media.