A five-minute deleted scene from The Batman has just been released – which you can watch above – that heavily focuses on the most famous Batman villain, the Joker.
For those who have already seen The Batman which was released in Australian cinemas earlier this month (and if you haven’t seen it yet, be warned there are massive spoilers ahead) you’ll know that near the end of the film when Paul Dano’s Riddler has been captured and locked up in Arkham Asylum he has an encounter with the inmate in the next cell.
This character, played by Barry Keoghan, was credited in the film as ‘Unseen Arkham Inmate’ but diehard Batman fans deduced this character was the Joker and were proven right when director Matt Reeves confirmed it in an interview with Variety.
“It is the Joker.”
In the same interview, Reeves also mentioned that originally in The Batman, he wanted Batman, played by Robert Pattinson, to sneak into Arkham and ask the Joker for his “perspective” on the Riddler. But instead, the Joker gets inside Batman’s head and slightly unsettles him.
Ultimately, this scene was filmed but was cut; Reeves felt it didn’t add anything to the film. But he thought Keoghan did such a great job playing the beloved character – a tough feat considering how flawlessly both Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker portrayed the Joker – and that the scene was “really creepy [and] cool” that it deserved to be released as a deleted scene for fans to enjoy.
However, Reeves insists that his decision to release the deleted Joker scene and confirm that it was the Joker in the brief scene that made the final cut, should not be interpreted by fans as a sign that the Joker will be the main villain in The Batman sequel.
“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.’”
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