Whether through the film’s ending scene The Batman, or the cut scene unveiled by Warner a few days ago, the Joker Matt Reeves version begins to appear and gradually integrate into the future Bat-Verse. Recent statements by the director allow us to learn more about his backstory.
A promotional scene
If the last minutes of the film made it possible to teaser in a “marvelous” way the return of the oldest antagonist of the dark knight, via this characteristic laugh, the deleted scene posted on the canvas made it possible to finally put a face to it, and in the passage of relaunch the film’s marketing and promotional campaign.
This 5-minute scene therefore gives us a first glimpse of this umpteenth Joker, which we imagine on the poster of the next Batman, (or even the third opus?). Iconic smile, scars somewhat hidden under a blurred face, the Joker seems to be an extension of that portrayed by Christopher Nolan fourteen years ago in The Dark Knight, The Black Knight.
Inspired by not 1, but 2 characters
However, the super villain would rather be inspired by that of Todd Philipsaccording to the words of Matt Reeves granted to variety. A specific detail of the character unveiled leads to this hypothesis:
It’s like the Phantom of the Opera. He has a congenital condition that keeps him from smiling, and it’s horrible. Her face is half-hidden for most of the movie. It’s not about a version where he falls into a vat of chemicals and his face is deformed, nor about what Christopher Nolan did, maintaining the mystery of how he got his scars. What if this guy had this disease since birth and was cursed?
It is so through this congenital disease, which also gnaws at the Joker camped by Joaquin Phoenix in the very rewarded feature film, that the rapprochement is made. If bringing the historic supervillain to the fore for the umpteenth time may seem sufficient, sticking to the origin story of that of 2019 may feel warmed up.
But the words of Matt Reeves also make one think of a historical character of the 7th art: Elephant Man, from the eponymous film by David Lynch.
He had this smile that people stared at, which was grotesque and terrifying. Even as a child, people looked at him in horror and he said “Okay, this is all a joke”. It was his nihilistic view of the world.”
What next for the Joker?
If the marketing effect is there, what should we expect with the Joker? In the scene in question, we understand that Batman and the Joker already know each other, since the latter talks about their past confrontation. We therefore imagine that the character interpreted by the Irish actor Barry Keoghan (already appeared in The Eternals from Marvel) will seek to escape from the asylum to seek revenge on the vigilante of Gotham in a second installment.
When questioned, Reeves dropped a few clues.
There may be a few chances. There are things I’m very interested in doing in the Arkham environment, potentially for HBO Max. There are things we talked about. So it’s very possible. It’s also not impossible that there is a story where the Joker comes to our world.”
Should we expect to see Batman’s nemesis acting up in its own spin-off? Or the arkham asylum series in development on HBO Max? Nothing has been confirmed about this. On the other hand, we understand that the projects around the Bat-Verse seem to accumulate.
