Warning: This article contains big spoilers for The Batman.
The Batman does a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to establishing a brand-new Batverse, but there’s still a lot it holds back on. While the movie sees Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight face off for the first time against such iconic foes as Riddler (Paul Dano), Penguin (Colin Farrell), and Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), there are plenty more of Gotham’s worst citizens the hero has yet to encounter. But he did meet one heavy-hitter, or nearly, in a scene that was ultimately excised.
Spoilers follow from this point.
Anybody who has already seen the film knows that, near the end of its runtime, a major new character is introduced who will likely cause trouble for the Batman in a sequel. The Riddler is shown to connect with a fellow psychopath incarcerated in Arkham Asylum, and while his face and name aren’t revealed, his talk of clowns and maniacal laugh confirms that this is a new take on the Joker, as played by Eternals star Barry Keoghan.
While it seems always to have been the plan to feature the Clown Prince of Crime in there somewhere, director Matt Reeves has confirmed that Keoghan’s Joker originally made his debut in a different way, in a deleted scene that would have seen him come face to face with Bruce Wayne. Reeves told Collider:
“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.”
In what no doubt would have been highly reminiscent of The Silence of the Lambs, Batman would’ve spoken with the Joker in order to get into the Riddler’s head.
“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.”
This sounds like a terrific sequence, though you can see Reeves’ point — it would have felt extraneous in the middle of the story. By contrast, the Joker’s final cameo feels much more organic as a hint of what’s to come. Plus, this way we still have the inevitable confrontation between the Batman and his future nemesis to look forward to.