‘The Batman’ Posts Deleted Scene featuring Barry Keoghan’s Joker
Director Matt Reeves also explains why he cut it from his superhero movie.
Robert Pattinson as Batman in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure 'The Batman,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Jonathan Olley/™ & © DC Comics. Copyright: © 2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
‘The Batman’ is a long film. At 176 minutes, it’s one of the longest superhero movies out there. Yet even with that generous running time, co-writer/director Matt Reeves couldn’t quite find room for every scene he wanted to include.
But because we live in an age where deleted scenes can make their way to audience eyes without having to wait for a home entertainment release, the scene is now available for us all to enjoy.
Though given the chilling turn and appearance of actor Barry Keoghan, “experience” might be a better phrase to use.
The scene in question finds Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader heading to Arkham Asylum for some help in cracking what the Riddler’s (Paul Dano) diabolical, clue-featuring killing spree is all about. Yes, even a costumed detective needs a little help sometimes.
And the scene draws comparisons to infamous meeting of minds between Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.
Keoghan’s character, Reeves’ version of the iconic Batman baddie The Joker (albeit at an early stage in his criminal career the same way Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne is still finding his footing as a vigilante/detective) takes after the director’s vision for The Penguin (Colin Farrell).
Which is to say it uses some disturbing, heavy prosthetics to bring to life a man who suffers from a serious condition. “He has a congenital disease where he can’t stop smiling and it’s horrific, Reeves explains. “His face is half-covered through most of the film.” He’s shot in such a way as to be out of focus for the scene, but what we see of him is certainly a departure from the likes of Heath Ledger, Joaquin Phoenix, or Jack Nicholson’s cinematic take on the villain.
Yet this Joker still goes in for some good, old fashioned psychological needling of our hero, comparing the Riddler’s viewpoint to Batman’s. He gets under Bruce Wayne’s skin, but also sounds like he has a point.
The exchange also layers in some of the brief history between this Batman and Joker, with a reference to their “anniversary” when the former had the latter locked up in the asylum.
When push came to shove in the final edit, however, the director decided the scene could go.
“It wasn’t necessary,” Reeves told Variety. “It was one of those scenes where, given how complex the narrative was, by taking it out, it kept the story moving in a way it needed to.”
Though it did go in the final cut, the director fully intended for it to see the light of day once enough people had had a chance to see the movie.
“It’s a really creepy, cool scene,” he says. “That was the scene that was meant to introduce this guy and just to tease the audience to go like, ‘Oh my god, he’s here too? And he’s not yet the Joker — what’s this going to be?’ And then it seems so delicious in the story, since we’d already set him up, to have the end of the story, the completion of the Riddler arc, be that he was in a cell next to this guy.”
That final scene does indeed show up with the Riddler talking to the Joker in Arkham, though Reeves has long pointed out that this doesn’t mean fans should assume either character will show up in any sequel. But at least we got to see “Unnamed Arkham Inmate” properly should he never return.
“The Batman” is still in theaters, but hits HBO Max on April 19th.
