DC has a certified hit on its hands with The Batman. Matt Reeves’s gritty, grounded take on the caped crusader has garnered hundreds of positive reviews and raked in $600 million at the box office. At this point, a sequel is all but guaranteed, though WarnerMedia has yet to make it official. In the meantime, the story remains unfinished, as the studio just shared a deleted scene this week giving us our first good look at Barry Keoghan’s Joker.
There will be spoilers for The Batman below, so you should proceed with caution.
Joker stars in The Batman deleted scene
Near the end of The Batman, there’s a short scene in which the Riddler, locked up in Arkham Asylum, has a conversation with another inmate. While the movie doesn’t explicitly say so, it is clear that the inmate is The Batman’s version of the Joker.
The scene feels a bit out of place. The Joker apparently knew what the Riddler was planning despite the fact that he never appeared on screen before this scene. Well, it turns out that in an earlier cut of the movie, this wasn’t the Joker’s only appearance.
If you stayed through the end credits of The Batman, you probably saw a web address flash across the screen. The website, rataalada.com, contains an alternate reality game (ARG) for the movie. If you visit the website, you will be presented with a series of riddles. Solve all of the riddles, and you will be rewarded with the following deleted scene:
There have been many on-screen portrayals of the Joker, but this is certainly one of the most disturbing to date. Barry Keoghan (Eternals, Dunkirk) has been completely transformed, with a mutilated face, scars all over his body, and blood-stained hands.
It’s easy to see why the studio would opt to remove this scene. If an extended scene with the Joker popped in the middle of the movie, he would likely steal the spotlight from the Riddler. But the way that Warner Bros. shared this scene seems to imply that the events are canon. Robert Pattinson’s Batman already knows the Joker in this universe.
What’s next for The Batman?
If you want to participate in the ongoing Batman ARG, keep checking rataalada.com. Also, if you can’t solve the riddles, here are all of the answers:
- Q: To wit: a wild card in the truest sense. | A: Joker
- Q: Once you’ve been set up, it hits you at the end. Straight on. | A: Punchline
- Q: It’s not a joke, but sometimes you need to shout it twice to really mean it. | A: Ha
In addition to introducing a new Batman and Joker, The Batman also kicks off a new cinematic universe for Warner Bros. Considering The Batman’s success, there’s little doubt that another movie will soon be in the works. In the meantime, HBO Max has already ordered a spinoff series starring Colin Farrell’s Penguin. There’s also an Arkham Asylum series in the works, but it’s still unclear if it will ever see the light of day.
