For the most part, Matt Reeves’ The Batman is a standalone detective noir singularly focused on deconstructing and evolving a fresh yet faithful new take on the Caped Crusader. But, since it’s a big studio tentpole, it also takes the time to set up a few sequels and spin-offs. The Penguin has taken over the Falcone crime syndicate ahead of his HBO Max series, and Barry Keoghan’s Arkham-imprisoned Joker has been teased as a future villain.
Keoghan’s brief but unforgettable debut as the Clown Prince of Crime is undoubtedly setting up a larger role in an upcoming project. But based on the ambiguity of his introductory scene, it’s unclear exactly what his Earth-Two DCEU future looks like.
An Injustice League-Style Alliance With The Riddler
The main development in the Joker’s The Batman scene – beyond introducing Keoghan’s frightening new take on the character – is his burgeoning friendship with the Riddler. The Joker wins over an imprisoned Edward Nashton with a clever riddle whose answer is “friends.”
After befriending the Riddler, the Joker promised him a “comeback story.” The recently released deleted scene in which the Bat meets with the Joker in Arkham suggests that this Joker has already been foiled by the Dark Knight. The Joker could be building up a team of supervillains for an Injustice League-style alliance to combine forces to take down Pattinson’s Batman.
A Lead Role In The Arkham Asylum Series
Reeves recently confirmed that the G.C.P.D. series on HBO Max has been retooled as a “haunted house” horror show set in Arkham Asylum. Now that he’s one of Arkham’s most notorious prisoners, Paul Dano’s Riddler could reappear in this show, but he might not be the series lead.
Instead, the show could be led by Keoghan’s Joker. It could chart the formation of a supervillain team. After the Joker recruited the Riddler in The Batman, he could go after the rest of the Bat’s imprisoned rogues’ gallery.
The Main Villain Of The Batman 2
While Keoghan’s Joker gets a tantalizing debut in The Batman, this teaser has been criticized as being too similar to Batman Begins. At the end of Batman Begins, Gordon presented the Bat with a joker card, setting up Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning turn in The Dark Knight.
The most obvious way that The Batman 2 will pay off the first film’s Joker tease is by following in Christopher Nolan’s footsteps and making the Clown Prince of Crime the main villain of the next movie.
A Harley Quinn Team-Up
In the early days of the DCEU when Warner Bros. was announcing projects left and right (most of which ultimately never materialized), there was a team-up movie planned for Jared Leto’s Joker and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn.
After The Batman has introduced a new version of the Joker incarcerated in a new version of Arkham Asylum, DC Films could retool their Joker/Harley team-up movie to suit Keoghan’s Joker and a new Harley (although Robbie has such a fan-favorite take that an Earth-Two recasting would be met with a healthy dose of skepticism).
A Hannibal Lecter-Style Consultation Role
The role of Keoghan’s Joker was significantly expanded in a recently released deleted scene in which the Bat meets with the Joker at Arkham to discuss the Riddler case. This scene has been compared to The Silence of the Lambs, with Batman filling the Clarice Starling role as a novice crimefighter and the Joker filling the Hannibal Lecter role as the psychotic imprisoned killer helping him catch Gotham’s latest mass-murdering menace.
This scene teased an interesting Silence of the Lambs/Long Halloween dynamic between this Batman and Joker. Since it was cut from the original movie, that concept could be revived for the sequel.
Terrorizing Gotham With The Penguin
The Riddler isn’t the only villain left alive and well at the end of The Batman. Colin Farrell’s Penguin arc is just getting started as he claims Falcone’s office in the Iceberg Lounge (and, presumably, his position as Gotham’s most powerful mob boss) ahead of his HBO Max streaming series.
The Joker and the Penguin have occasionally worked together in the comics. When Farrell’s Penguin eventually takes over Gotham’s criminal underworld, this team-up could take place on-screen.
A Solo Movie
It seems like the DCEU introduces a new version of the Joker every year. After Joaquin Phoenix starred as Arthur Fleck in an Oscar-winning Joker solo movie, giving Keoghan’s new Joker his own movie might be too much Joker.
But the Phoenix-starring Joker movie was more of an homage to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy than a straightforward adaptation of the Clown Prince of Crime from the comics. A Keoghan-led Joker movie could offer a more faithful, comics-accurate Joker less derivative of Scorsese’s delusional antiheroes.
The Big Bad Of The Batman Trilogy
Instead of simply taking the lead in the first sequel like Ledger’s Joker, Keoghan’s Joker could be set up as the Thanos of this Bat-verse, gradually working toward a diabolical scheme throughout the trilogy before revealing himself as the “big bad” in the finale.
Recruiting the Riddler for an anti-Bat alliance could be the first step in a much larger plan to take down the Caped Crusader that will reveal itself in two movies’ time when Pattinson’s Batman has a Robin and a lot more crimefighting experience.