Barry Keoghan has reacted to his deleted scene from The Batman being unveiled. Fans were shocked when the Eternals star showed up for a cameo as none other than the Joker in the recent DC blockbuster, with Keoghan playing an unnamed cackling Arkham inmate in one of the film’s final scenes. The actor’s original role in the movie, a much more substantial five-minute scene, has now been released online, as per tie-in website rataalada.com.
While Keoghan’s Clown Prince of Crime remains just out of focus throughout, the fascinating sequence gives us our first glimpse of his Joker, with the Irish star completely unrecognizable beneath disfiguring prosthetics. He’s also totally chilling in the role, more than giving Paul Dano’s Riddler a run for his money in the creepy villain department.
We’ve yet to really get to hear Keoghan’s feelings on stepping into such an iconic part, but he has at least responded to the deleted scene’s release on social media. Keoghan shared director Matt Reeves’ tweet about the sequence, adding a brief reaction of his own. “No Words,” he wrote, with his response quickly going viral.
The scene in question sees Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight visit Joker in Arkham, on what’s apparently the anniversary of the day the vigilante got him locked up in the insane asylum, in order to get his “expertise” on the Riddler’s mindset. Reeves has explained that he wanted a “Manhunter or Mindhunter”-style confrontation between the hero and the maniac. Ultimately, though, it wasn’t the right fit for the story and was swapped out for the cameo that ended up in the theatrical cut.
It’s currently unclear where Barry Keoghan’s Joker could appear next, but a role in either The Batman 2 or the Arkham Asylum spinoff show — or maybe even both — seems likely. The Batman comes to HBO Max on April 19.