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So there is a new Joker after all. After Heath Ledger, Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix have played this role in recent years, Barry Keoghan (“Eternals”) can now slip into the role of the greatest Batman villain ever – if only for a short scene. And that comes as a surprise, even if there had been rumors and hints beforehand.
Because Studio Warner and those responsible for “The Batman” around director Matt Reeves tried very hard to keep Barry Keoghan’s role secret: When Keoghan’s commitment to “The Batman” became known, officials said that he was the policeman Stanley Merkel plays, a character who also exists in the DC Comics.
Not only that, Reeves even filmed extra fake scenes showing Keoghan as a cop to further mislead fans. Reeves explained the reasoning behind it to IGN .
That’s why Barry Keoghan was kept secret as the Joker
“When you make a film like this, you want it to be different, you want people to have a special experience,” Reeves said. “And I personally want to be at least a little surprised when I go to the movies.”
So he was worried that fans could speculate about who Keoghan is playing and come up with the right solution. ” So we thought: We could lure people down the wrong track. Hence the idea of making him Stanley Merkel. The police play a big role in the story, so that seemed believable.”
Rumors and leaks ruin the secret
Unfortunately, nothing can really be kept secret with a film as big as “The Batman”, so it didn’t take long before even the big industry magazines Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter continued to fuel the rumor mill with their reports.
Eric Keoghan was certainly to blame for this, as he confirmed on Twitter that his brother Barry was playing the Joker. The fact that he quickly deleted the post afterwards naturally ensured that many were now convinced of Keoghan’s joker performance.
As Matt Reeves told us in the interview, this appearance was almost completely cut out of the film, because the scene with the Joker and the Riddler (Paul Dano) was still in the balance. Test screenings showed versions of the film with and without the Riddler-Joker moment, but the version with did better.
There’s a second joker scene too!
And one more scene with the Joker was actually cut: In this earlier scene, Batman ( Robert Pattinson ) was supposed to visit the Joker in Arkham, who he hopes will help him find the Riddler – Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs . sends regards.
At the same time, the common history of Batman and Joker should also become clear in this scene. As Reeves revealed to industry magazine Variety , the Joker greets his counterpart with the words “It’s almost our anniversary, isn’t it?”, The anniversary of their first meeting.
Though Reeves eventually had to cut that scene, he’s already revealed he’s planning to do more with it – so it ‘s very likely to be included in the home theater release of The Batman, or maybe even a longer director’s cut.
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