THE BATMAN Director Shares Details on Surprise Character, a Deleted Scene, and The Character's Future in the Franchise

If you haven’t watched The Batman yet, this article contains spoilers involving a surprise character that was introduced in the film.

If you’ve seen the film, you know that this surprise character is The Joker, who was played Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk, Eternals). Fans have a lot of questions about this character, and director Matt Reeves recently sat down with Variety to share all the details and answer many of the questions you might have.

The Joker only had one little scene in the movie, but there was another scene that was shot that ended up being cut from the film. A lot of fans are also wondering if we’ll see the character in a sequel, but that’s apparently something that we shouldn’t expect to see.

Reeves explained that he thought it’d be “really neat if so much of the fabric of Gotham just already existed, and it was like an old Warner Bros. gangster movie and if you took a certain turn, you might see a character in his origins.” That’s what he wanted to do with The Joker.

In the film, Keoghan is credited as “Unseen Arkham Inmate”, but it is The Joker, and Reeves confirmed that in the interview. But, Reeves did not set the character up for another movie. It’s said that the director “is in no way convinced that Keoghan’s Joker will appear in any more Batman movies.” He explained:

“It’s not an Easter egg scene. It’s not one of those end credits Marvel or DC scenes where it’s going, like, ‘Hey, here’s the next movie!’ In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies.”

Regardless, Reeves revealed that The joker did have a slightly bigger role in the film and there was an additional scene that was shot that ended up on the cutting room floor. That scene involved Batman going to Arkham Asylum to talk to him.

The scene takes place after the revelation that the Riddler has killed the Gotham City police commissioner and left behind yet another note addressed to the Batman. “Between the Riddler’s notes casting an uncomfortable spotlight on Batman and the discovery that the Riddler is killing city leaders neck-deep in corruption, Batman finds himself unnerved over what to make of what the Riddler is doing.”

Reeves explained, “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.”

The filmmaker explained how the scene plays out with Batman sneaking inside Arkham, arriving at the door of The Joker:

“And this guy says, ‘It’s almost our anniversary, isn’t it?' You realize that they have a relationship, and that this guy obviously did something, and Batman somehow got him into Arkham.”

As they talk, Batman tells Joker he wants to know how Riddler thinks. Joker’s reply, as relayed by Reeves: “What do you mean, you want to know how he thinks? You guys think the same.”

Reeves smiles. “What he’s really doing is getting into Batman’s head,” he says. “And [Batman] is resisting this idea violently. And so that’s what that scene was. It was a scene to unsettle him.”

Ultimately, Reeves felt that the scene “wasn’t necessary,” he says. “It was one of those scenes where, given how complex the narrative was, by taking it out, it kept the story moving in a way it needed to.” Cutting the scene was “heartbreaking” for Reeves, but he intends to release it once enough people have seen the film.

“It’s a really creepy, cool scene. That was the scene that was meant to introduce this guy and just to tease the audience to go like, ‘Oh my god, he’s here too? And he’s not yet the Joker — what’s this going to be?’ And then it seems so delicious in the story, since we’d already set him up, to have the end of the story, the completion of the Riddler arc, be that he was in a cell next to this guy.”

Reeves also said that he almost cut the Joker out of the movie entirely, but when they tested the film with audiences, they loved the character being in it. The score for the film went up when the Joker was in in the film. He shared:

“I initially tested it without it; when I put it back in, the scores for the ending went back up. And I think it wasn’t just that people enjoyed seeing that character. It changed people’s response to the very ending of the movie, to see that Gotham was still Gotham, and that Batman really didn’t have a choice. He has to keep doing what he’s gonna do.”

However, with Reeves including the character at the end of the movie, he’s well aware of the fact fans will expect The Joker to show up again in another movie. But, in regards to that, he said:

“I never was trying to say like, ‘Hey, guess what, here’s the Joker. Next movie!' The idea was more to say, ‘Hey, look, if you think that trouble is going to go away in Gotham, you can forget it. It’s already here. And it’s already delicious.'”

I’m still sure that we’ll see the Joker in another movie. Maybe not as the main villain, but we very well could see him again. The director goes on to offer details on the look of the villain and developing that look with prosthetic makeup artist Michael Marino. Reeves said, “I said, ‘The shape of his hair, the shape of his mouth, it’s all going to read, but it’s going to be soft.’ So he knew that was the canvas he had to deal with.”

Reeves went on to add that Keoghan’s Joker was inspired by Conrad Veidt’s performance in the 1928 silent film The Man Who Laughs, based on a novel by Victor Hugo. He said:

“It’s like ‘Phantom of the Opera. He has a congenital disease where he can’t stop smiling and it’s horrific. His face is half-covered through most of the film.” While it’s barely perceptible in the movie, Marino’s makeup evoked Veidt’s, giving Keoghan an unceasing rictus grin.”

He wanted this version of The Joker to be based on a kid born with a condition in which he never stopped smiling, and I love this approach. I like it so much that I wish Reeves would explore the character further!

“It’s not about some version where he falls into a vat of chemicals and his face is distorted, or what [Christopher] Nolan did, where there’s some mystery to how he got these scars carved into his face. What if this guy from birth had this disease and he was cursed? He had this smile that people stared at that was grotesque and terrifying. Even as a child, people looked at him with horror, and his response was to say, ‘Okay, so a joke was played on me,’ and this was his nihilistic take on the world.”

Why wouldn’t Reeves want to explore that!? It’s such a different take on the character and it makes for a fascinating story and character development. When talking about the future of The Joker, Reeves said:

“There might be places. There’s stuff I’m very interested in doing in an Arkham space, potentially for HBO Max. There are things we’ve talked about there. So it’s very possible. It also isn’t impossible, that there is some story that comes back where Joker comes into our world.”

That would be cool to see a series set in Arkham Asylum! I’d watch the hell out of that! As for Keoghan’s involvement, when Reeves met with the actor about taking on the role he said, “I said to Barry, right from the beginning, ‘Look, I don’t know where this is going to go. I can’t promise that it’ll even ever come back. I don’t know.’ And I still feel that way now. I’m not sure exactly.”

He added, “I was looking not only for somebody who was a good actor, but somebody who was fearless. Joaquin, as we were making the movie, had just won the Oscar. They already thought you can’t do the Joker again after Heath Ledger. And then Joaquin comes in. So I can imagine an actor going like, ‘There’s nowhere to go but down!' Barry was full in. That, along with the fact that I loved him as an actor, was the deciding factor. And we did it.”

They sure did, and I hope that Reeves decides to play with the character further. It’d be a shame not to, especially because they’ve found a new and unique way to play with the villain. What do you think?

Source: Variety