Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Batman.In Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the title hero (played by Robert Pattinson) spends the majority of the film hunting down The Ridder (Paul Dano), who is murdering the corrupt men of Gotham and leaving clues behind. Near the end of The Batman, with Riddler in Arkham Asylum, we hear and get a quick glimpse of Barry Keoghan, who is listed as “Unseen Arkham Prisoner.” Despite, his name, Keoghan seems to not only be playing an iconic Batman character, but in our interview with Reeves, apparently, Keoghan’s character was almost a bigger part of The Batman.
When talking to Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Reeves discussed a deleted scene from The Batman that would’ve made Keoghan’s character more integral to the film. On the deleted scene, Reeves said:
“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.
“And you see him meeting with somebody who is obviously a serial killer himself, who, because it’s not Batman’s origin, but it is the origins of all these other characters, you’re seeing a version of this character who, yes, when you see the unknown prisoner, you’re like, ‘well, gee, I think that’s who that is.’ Well, that is who that is, but he’s not yet that character.”
While Keoghan may be listed as “Unseen Arkham Prisoner,” it’s fairly obvious that this prisoner—who is foolishly imprisoned dangerous close to The Riddler—is none other than The Joker. Early on in The Batman, we see a gang wearing white face makeup that looks eerily close to that of The Joker, so it does seem like Joker’s madness has already infected Gotham in some capacity (especially if he’s already in jail when we first meet him).
Even though we’ve seen plenty of takes on Joker in recent years, with Joaquin Phoenix in Joker, as well as Jared Leto in Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Keoghan is another intriguing choice to play this character. There’s only a glimpse of the Eternals and The Killing of a Sacred Deer actor in The Batman, but according to Reeves, Keoghan did get to share a scene with Pattinson:
“This was a really cool scene, and what Barry and what Rob did in that scene was super cool. So at some point, I definitely want the audience to see that scene, just because they could see this really cool scene, but it isn’t something that’s part of the overall narrative that is like, “oh, I wish…’ I won’t even put it in the movie. It won’t be a different cut. The cut that is out there in the theaters, that’s the cut.”
While Reeves has stated before that he envisions The Batman as the first part of his Batman trilogy, we might not have to wait until the second or third film to see Keoghan’s take on Joker. Even though this scene was cut from The Batman, Reeves certainly wants to make sure the audience gets to see Keoghan’s meetup with Pattinson’s Batman. When asked if this scene could be released on the Blu-ray, Reeves stated:
“We’ll do something with it. I mean, look, we’ve just finished the movie. We’re now promoting the movie. We’re figuring out what’s going to happen when everything goes into sort of the home video version of it, but there’s definitely a plan to do something with it. We for sure will show that scene.”
Even though Reeves didn’t include the scene in The Batman, The Riddler is more than enough antagonist for Batman. But it will be exciting to see Reeves’ take on Joker go head-to-head with this Batman, whenever we get to see this scene.
Watch what Reeves had to say in the player above.
The Batman is currently playing in theaters.