Warner Bros. today released a surprise deleted scene from The Batman, director Matt Reeves’ reboot of the DC Comics superhero franchise. The deleted scene introduces Barry Keoghan as the Dark Knight franchise’s new version of iconic bat-villain the Joker. Or rather, the scene introduces a character destined to become the Joker.
Before watching the clip, it’s important to understand a few things about The Batman. The story takes place after actor Robert Pattinson’s Batman has already been operating in Gotham City for a year, so we are witnessing the aftermath of his war on regular street crime, organized gangs, and corruption, but prior to the takeover of Gotham’s crime by the rogues gallery of so-called “freak” villains.
This, then, is the moment when Batman experiences the transformation of certain people into his arch enemies. So we get Riddler’s origin story, we see Selina Kyle becoming Catwoman, we see Oswald Cobblepot nicknamed Penguin and take over the mob. And now — in a scene removed from the theatrical release and therefore not a spoiler — we see a disturbed, severely injured inmate at Arkham Asylum who has undergone a metamorphose, but the process isn’t quite complete yet.
Now, before I get deeper into what makes this pre-Joker tick, take a look at the remarkable deleted scene...
This is presumably the Red Hood, a devious thief who plagued Gotham until Batman caught up to him and somehow caused the thief’s fall into a vat of hazardous chemicals. The Red Hood survived the fall, but was disfigured by the chemicals and driven mad by it (although he was perhaps already on the road to insanity), causing the clown-like appearance that leads to his new identity as the Joker.
In The Batman, Keoghan has blisters and burns all over his exposed skin. His hair has burned off or fallen out on the sides and back of his head, his lips are cracked and split, his grin extended by hideous burns and scars (akin to — but more severe than — Heath Ledger’s “Joker smile” in The Dark Knight, and as originally envisioned by comic book artist Lee Bermejo in his Joker designs). His skin is chalky and dry, his remaining top hair green. He stumbles about his cell aimlessly, mumbling to himself, distracted, his broken mind reassembling itself in a collage of malignance and madness.
Batman’s arrival creates a spark in pre-Joker’s eyes, and he slowly but surely comes to vivid life as they interact. His malevolence is matched by a playfulness, though, that suggests a playful joy at getting Batman’s goat. There are no threats or homicidal suggestions from Joker himself, and he even gives Batman some useful insights (although Batman clearly doesn’t fully realize it at the time) about the Riddler and the Riddler’s motives. This pre-Joker is having fun playing along and ribbing Batman, building toward his sucker punch at the end.
I’ve previously written my own thoughts about how a Joker character might fit into Matt Reeves’ bat-world, which you can read here. The gist of it is, I wanted a Joker who was more focused on trying to undermine Batman’s sense of himself and to damage Batman’s public image. Specifically, I wanted to see a Joker more akin to the character from the 1960s TV series, but homicidal — with the caveat that his violence and darkness didn’t overshadow his clownishness, and that he also spent a lot of time setting up pranks on Batman as opposed to always focusing on body counts.
While Keoghan’s pre-Joker is obviously still of the “out-edgy Batman” variety that’s been popular now for decades, he also has a sprite-like quality and actual sense of humor throughout, and seems like the sort who will enjoy poking Batman in the eye more than threats of murder and death.
It would be cool to get at least a brief flashback or two of this character as the Red Hood, perhaps in a movie starring Keoghan’s Joker as the main villain, but it’s not necessary. It won’t take much to establish the fact he’s burned and scarred from an unintended chemical bath, and that it renders his true identity impossible to ascertain anymore (his fingerprints may have been irreparably burned or otherwise damaged).
When next we see him, I’d bet his skin is at least slightly healed — enough that he’s not covered in scars, but still retains the “Glasgow smile” and hairlessness on the sides and back of his head. And he’ll probably wear lipstick.
But I don’t expect we’ll see the Joker as the main villain any time soon. Reeves has made it clear he wants to pursue a few other villains, including Mister Freeze for example, and he isn’t even sure if he will wind up using the Joker at all again for his own movies.
That’s not to say we won’t see the Joker in Reeves’ bat-world, though. I fully expect him to appear in the upcoming HBO Max spinoff series focusing on Arkham Asylum. Originally intended as Gotham PD, the series has — like the villains themselves — transformed into something new, different, and more eerie. Which means Joker is probably going to feature in the series, alongside some other bat-villains (perhaps Paul Dano’s Riddler will be there as well). If he does appear in the series, that might be the most likely place to see any flashbacks to his Red Hood days and Batman sending him into the vat of chemicals.
The Batman has already topped $600+ million in its theatrical run, and is on course to pass $700+ million by the end of its run. The film arrives on HBO Max on April 19th.
UPDATE: I should add a note that although Matt Reeves has said in interviews that he approached the Joker character with the idea that the character was born with a congenital condition that affected his appearance, he didn’t really get into which aspects are pre-existing conditions and which are from other sources (injuries, chemicals, intentional self-alteration).
The filmmaker has also made it clear (in publicly released on-camera interviews, and back in the Q&A from early February after our initial screening event) he went into the film without knowing whether he’d ever use the Joker again besides this cameo, so the ideas are more vague and weren’t part of a larger detailed plan for Joker and his backstory.
This leaves lots of room to adjust, retcon, or alter aspects of the incarnation — and Reeves says this character has already fought Batman in the past, so he has a prior history as a villain with Batman. Since I don’t think green hair is a grounded idea for a congenital condition, and since some of Joker’s appearance seems to obviously be scars and injuries, I think by the time we see Keoghan’s Joker again, there will be more to his backstory and history with Batman.
