SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “THE BATMAN”
With Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” now out in cinemas, the discussion has touched upon a brief villain cameo towards the film’s end.
In the scene, Paul Dano’s Riddler has been locked up in Arkham Asylum and starts talking with a cellmate next door – one who refers to a ‘clown’, cackles in laughter and whom we briefly see part of his face.
“Eternals,” “Dunkirk” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” star Barry Keoghan played the role of the ‘Unseen Arkham Inmate’ but it’s quite clear this is The Joker.
Speaking with Variety, Reeves says that despite the scene’s placement this is not set up for the sequel:
“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.
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.'”
Reeves confirms he had initially planned for Keoghan’s Joker to appear in two scenes – the one that made it in, and another in which Batman visits the Joker in the asylum ala “Manhunter”.
In that scene, the Joker says “It’s almost our anniversary, isn’t it?” which establishes an existing relationship between the pair. Then Joker talks in a way to try and get into Batman’s head which unsettles him.
However, Reeves cut the scene as he felt it hit the same beats accomplished elsewhere in the movie. When he cut it he considered cutting the second scene as well but ultimately changed his mind:
“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.”
Reeves worked with prosthetic makeup artist Michael Marino to develop a deliberately out of focus and obscured look, turning to the original inspiration of Conrad Veidt in the 1928 silent film “The Man Who Laughs”.
Part of the reason they’re not rushing to set Joker for the sequel is that according to Reeves: “we made a really concerted effort to make this different from the other ‘Batman’ movies because we needed to. It’s something to think about with the Joker. Its been done well, a number of times.”
One possibility is the tie-in HBO Max programs as they’re doing a series based on Colin Farrell’s The Penguin and another connected to Arkham Asylum.
Meanwhile, the film is on track for a $128 million domestic opening weekend following a $57 million opening day Friday (that number including $21 million in previews).
The film also scored an A- CinemaScore which is on par with “Batman Forever” and “The LEGO Batman Movie,” behind the A all three Nolan Batman films and Keaton’s first earned, and ahead of the B that “Batman Returns” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” scored.
