Robert Pattinson’s Batman and a new Joker played by Barry Keoghan face off in Arkham Asylum as part of a deleted scene that was released from the new movie The Batman.
The film’s writer and director, Matt Reeves, first teased the scene on Twitter with a link to ratlaada.com, which has its own Riddler puzzle fans can do and released the clip as a reward once it was completed. Now for people that don’t have an interest to do a puzzle, anyone can watch it on YouTube.
Keoghan, best known for appearances in Dunkirk and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, was unrecognizable and delivered a vocal performance that seemed clearly influenced by Heath Ledger’s iconic portrayal of the villain in The Dark Knight.
Through directing touches that avoided showing a clear shot of his face like front-shots through the frosty glass, we couldn’t get a full look at first, but Keoghan clearly went through heavy special effects makeup to appear disfigured in the face. In the last shots as Keoghan delivers the Joker’s final monologue, we finally get an uncomfortably close shot of his heavy scarring as he laughs maniacally.
Pattinson’s Batman seems to be seeking the Joker’s insight on the motivations of a serial killer he’s after, the film’s main villain The Riddler. They seem to have an established relationship, with the Joker saying Batman is, “normally so ahead of the curve.” Keoghan’s Joker also confronts Batman by saying, “You know exactly how he thinks. Have you read this file? You two have so much in common, masked avengers… Are you afraid he makes you look soft?”
The scene was perfectly paced and had a great build of tension up to the final reveal, but director Reeves said he cut it because it eventually didn’t feel “necessary” to him. He said that when you see the Joker in this scene, you’re supposed to think, “‘Well gee, I think that’s who that is.’ Well, that is who that is, but he’s not yet that character.”
Reeves added that shooting this scene gave him ideas for a potential follow-up. “I always say, you don’t set out to make a movie like this to 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. But in this case, I have plenty of ideas about where it goes.”
The Batman premiered to generally positive reviews and good box office returns in early March. There are already two sequels in the works, and two HBO Max original spin-off shows exploring characters introduced in the movie.
You can watch the scene here:
