Warner Bros. has unveiled a chilling deleted scene for The Batman featuring Barry Keoghan‘s Joker. In the clip, Pattinson’s Batman visits Joker at Arkham Asylum to gain his perspective about the Riddler’s modus operandi. Complete with pangs of Silence of the Lambs, the exchange feels like a dance between Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter. The Batman director Matt Reeves teased the clip online by sharing an image of Keoghan’s Joker alongside the words “Who gets the last laugh…?”
At the top of the exchange, Batman shows Joker a stack of papers, to which Joker remarks that it’s their “first anniversary.” Batman urges the Joker to take his visit seriously and points out that there is another serial killer on the loose. During their talk, we’re given a better look at Keoghan’s transformation into the Jester of Genocide. Through the glass, we can see that Keoghan’s face is severely scarred with chemical burns and that his hair is indeed a sickly green color. The pigment in his skin has been stripped away, and his mouth has been twisted into a crooked perma-smile. As Joker rifles through the papers, we can see that his nails are bloody and chewed and that his entire body has been ravaged by the accident at Ace Chemical. Keoghan even makes wet smacking sounds with his mouth as he speaks, which could be seen as a tribute to Heath Ledger’s version of the character in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
Reeves previously told Collider that the scene was cut because it didn’t fit within the larger narrative of The Batman.
“Not because anyone asked me to cut it, but [I didn’t think] it was necessary,” Reeves said. “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.”
Reeves continued, “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.”
“I always say, you don’t set out with a movie like this to a make a Chapter 1 unless you’re making two movies at once because then you know you really are making two halves of the same story,” Reeves said. “But in this case, I have plenty of ideas about where it goes.”
I love this. I love this so much. I hope we get more of Keoghan’s Joker in a sequel to The Batman. I like that there’s already an established history between the two characters and that you can feel how giddy Joker is to have Batman at his mercy for information. This exchange feels like it was ripped right out of some of the best Batman comics, and I want more of it. I’m really digging the overall look of the character. His bloody smile looks like it was pulled right off the cover of Joker by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo. Honestly, everything about this looks outstanding, and I’d love to see more. #ReleaseTheKeoghanCut! Haha!
What do you think of this deleted scene from The Batman? Would you like to see more of Keoghan’s Joker in another film? Feel free to go crazy in the comments section below.
