The Batman’s Deleted Joker Scene Has Been Released
A scene too extraneous for The Batman’s overall story is finally released, via the Rata Alada website hosting many of the film’s secrets, and it shows us how The Joker (Barry Keoghan) fits into the bigger picture of the film’s world.
As Matt Reeves described, Batman visits Joker and shows him the criminal file on The Riddler to see if the clown, a la Calendar Man in The Long Halloween, can shed light on the pathology of Gotham’s latest criminal genius.
Unfortunately for the Dark Knight and his limited patience, he reaches the conclusion that The Bat and the Prince of Puzzles have a lot in common deep down, and that the hero secretly thinks Riddler’s victims deserve what they ultimately get.
View the five-minute deleted scene below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKGhtSCVovo
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Keoghan’s Joker is mostly blurry, viewed from behind, or glimpsed at in reflections and piecemeal but we still get a good look at him. His hair is clearly green though most of it is shaven, and his skin is clearly pasty and covered in scars from either burns or multiple cuts that put Heath Ledger to shame.
That brings me to his face which is the really odd part. Reeves claimed his design for Joker was going to be based on The Man Who Laughs and would be a congenital condition the character has that results in a permanent grin.
The template may be so in the director’s head but it doesn’t translate to the screen with those vibes. What we see of Keoghan’s heavily made-up face far from indicates his Joker was born that way. Rather, he appears to have suffered an accident at some point as Joker did in the comics and most media when he took an acid bath.
Ledger and his scars that were the cause of his smirk are one notable exception and Keoghan’s portrayal takes a few cues from the late Aussie thespian’s turn in The Dark Knight.
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The latter certainly has the scars and his voice is remarkably reminiscent of Ledger’s clownish high pitch – nearly as much as he reflects Ledger’s presence in The Dark Knight’s infamous interrogation room scene.
His presence was constant throughout that movie and his face was clear as day in almost every shot. There were even a few without Ledger in face paint.
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Keoghan differs in The Batman. It’s hard to believe but we don’t actually get a clear shot of his whole face for more than a millisecond – not that you’d notice if you saw the composite a fan created on Reddit.
Using stills of shots of his eye line and his mouth, u/TheProdigalMaverick shows us what Keoghan’s Joker looks like and he hits the mark for ugliness.
Composite Look at Riddler’s “Friend” from The Batman – SPOILERS
byu/TheProdigalMaverick inDC_Cinematic
To them, he’s just a freak; but to Matt Reeves, he was unnecessary and this scene was cut. Keoghan was, thus, left with a shadowy cameo as an unnamed Arkham inmate – costing The Batman nothing in terms of plot or tension.
You may feel differently. We invite you to leave your opinion below along with your appraisal of Barry Keoghan’s few minutes of fame as the Jester of Genocide.
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