With a title like Matt Reeves explains SPOILERS appearance in The Batman, it goes without saying to be careful. If you have already watched The Batman you may be quite interested in the directors words in this article. If instead you’ve yet to see the movie, then you might want to experience a few surprises for yourself first? Or, if like me, you have not seen it yet, but kinda work within the rumors circles and know all the spoilers anyway, feel free to read on.
Potential The Batman SPOILERS Below!
If you have watched The Batman, you likely know the end of the movie features an appearance by Batman’s most famous villain. Barry Keoghan’s version of The Joker is already in Arkham Asylum and has a chat with Paul Dano’s The Riddler. The dialogue hints that in this universe Joker and Batman have already crossed swords before. However, whilst many fans probably think this teases Keoghan’s Joker as the villain for the sequel, director Matt Reeves says that’s not the case in a recent chat with Variety.
“You’re right,” Reeves says. “It is the Joker.”
While it may seem obvious that Reeves placed this scene at the end of “The Batman” to set up Keoghan as the lead villain for the inevitable sequel, the director was quick to explain that not only was that not his intention, he is in no way convinced that Keoghan’s Joker will appear in any more “Batman” movies.
“It’s not an Easter egg scene,” he says. “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.”
Reeves went on to reveal that originally Keoghan’s Joker had a bigger part in The Batman. In fact cutting all this almost made Reeves decide to cut the Joker appearance we got in the movie as well. However he felt in the end he needed it to remain.
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“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,” says Reeves.
So Reeves shot a scene in which Batman snuck inside Arkham, arriving at the door of a specific inmate.
“And this guy says, ‘It’s almost our anniversary, isn’t it?’” says Reeves. “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, however, Reeves felt that the scene hit the same beat accomplished elsewhere in the movie. So he cut it. “It 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.”
As I said up top, I have not yet seen the movie, so I won’t comment on whether Reeves was right or wrong in anyway from my point of view.
What do you think as Matt Reeves explains SPOILERS [Joker’s] appearance in The Batman. Would you like to see Keoghan make little cameos before finally becoming a main villain himself one day? Reeves also hinted the character could show up in the Arkham Asylum based show, would you like to see a Joker origin there also? Thoughts below as always.
