Even though we’ve seen plenty of the iconic villain in the very recent past thanks to Joaquin Phoenix’s Academy Award-winning performance as Arthur Fleck and Jared Leto’s do-over in the epilogue of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, we’ve long since resigned ourselves to accepting that the Joker will be lurking in the shadows of scuttlebutt as we edge closer to the release of The Batman.
Wherever the Dark Knight goes, the Clown Prince of Crime isn’t too far behind, and we’ve been hearing all sorts of Joker-related rumors ever since Matt Reeves’ reboot entered production, despite the movie already having a trifecta of antagonists in place via Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman, Colin Farrell’s Penguin and Paul Dano’s Riddler.
However, Eternals star Barry Keoghan has increasingly been touted as the Joker hiding right in our midst, and as you can see from the reactions below, fans would be more than okay if it turned out to be the case.
Keoghan boarded the ensemble quite late in the day as Gotham City police officer Stanley Merkel, a character with an established comic book history of his own. It feels unlikely that The Batman will reveal him as the Joker before the credits roll, but it’s definitely something we can’t rule out with 100% certainty, either.