Matt Reeves recently talked about Barry Keoghan’s version of Joker in his Batman universe and how he will be different than previous iterations of the character.
Keoghan’s Joker was introduced in a deleted scene from 2022’s The Batman, which was directed by Reeves. We have no idea when Keoghan’s Joker will show up in The Batman Epic Crime Saga, but there are plans in place.
It was previously reported that a Joker limited series is in the works and that it would bridge the gap between The Batman Part II and Part III. James Gunn quickly debunked that report and said “a Joker series is not being discussed nor has even come up at this time.”
While we wait to see what the future of the Joker is in The Batman universe, Reeves told The Hollywood Reporter that they’re working on making sure this version of the character will be different than previous versions.
He said: “Anytime you’re going to approach any of these characters, you have to find a fresh way to do it. So that makes it incredibly daunting. At the same time, this version of Penguin is a version of Penguin that no one had ever seen.
“The only way to do it is to feel like you’re earning your place because otherwise you’re just doing more, and people are going like, ‘Well, we’ve seen it, so what do you got for us?’ So how can it be the thing we love, but also something we haven’t seen?
“That’s always the challenge. So with a character like that, that would have to be the bar.”
Reeves previously talked about the look of the Joker, saying: “He’s held in this very suspenseful way, away from you visually. But I wanted to create an iteration of him that felt distinctive and new, but went right back to the roots. So he’s very much out of the Conrad Veidt mold and that idea of the silent film of The Man Who Laughs.”
The filmmaker wanted this version of The Joker to be based on a kid born with a condition in which he never stopped smiling. He said, “It’s not about some version where he falls into a vat of chemicals and his face is distorted, or what [Christopher] Nolan did, where there’s some mystery to how he got these scars carved into his face.
“What if this guy from birth had this disease and he was cursed? He had this smile that people stared at that was grotesque and terrifying. Even as a child, people looked at him with horror, and his response was to say, ‘Okay, so a joke was played on me,’ and this was his nihilistic take on the world.”
He expanded on this and likened the character to The Elephant Man. He says: “He can never stop smiling. And it made Mike [Marino] and I think about — I was talking about The Elephant Man because I love David Lynch.
“And I was like, ‘Well, maybe there’s something here where it’s not something where he fell in a vat of chemicals or it’s not the [Christopher] Nolan thing where he has these scars and we don’t know where they came from.
“What if this is something that he’s been touched by from birth and that he has a congenital disease that refuses to let him stop smiling? And he’s had this very dark reaction to it, and he’s had to spend a life of people looking at him in a certain way and he knows how to get into your head.'”
Reeves also explains: “Life has been a cruel joke on him. And this is his response, and he’s eventually going to declare himself as a clown, declare himself as the Joker. That was the idea.”
The Batman Part II is currently scheduled to be released in theaters on October 2, 2026. We have no idea if The Joker will show up in that, but fans are hoping he will.
