The Batman has opened up to wider critical acclaim and reception than anticipated. People are praising Robert Pattinson’s iteration of the caped crusader. But what makes The Batman distinct is not just Pattinson’s performance, it’s also this new version of Gotham Matt Reeves has created. Batman’s vigilantism in the city is still in its infancy and corruption has engulfed the very system that administers the city and its people. This Batverse has a lot of things going on since Bruce Wayne took it upon himself to unravel the truth behind organized crime in Gotham as well as his parent’s murder. Several stories are waiting to unfold within Matt Reeves’ Gotham, and one of them includes our very own Clown Prince of Crime.
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SPOILERS AHEAD
The Ending of The Batman
Warner Bros. Pictures
At the end of the film, the serial killer, Edward Nashton aka The Riddler is apprehended and sent to Arkham Asylum. In his cell, he hears the news and learns that his plan to assassinate the newly-elected mayor has failed, leading him to cry and shout and agony. But, he finds some solace in the words of an unknown inmate, sitting right there in the adjacent cabin. Though his face isn’t shown, the hysterical laughter and the little glimpse of scars on his cheeks were enough to tell us that he’s none other than the Joker.
Barry Keoghan (Chernobyl, Dunkirk, Eternals) appears as Joker in a cameo role in the film. Earlier, Warner Bros. has named his character to be one Officer Stanley Merkel but eventually, rumors about his secretive role started doing rounds, to the point where Warner Bros. had almost decided to release an alternate cut of the film which wouldn’t have featured him. Now that we know he is in the film, and in this DC Universe dubbed as Earth-2, we can expect a few twists in the forthcoming films of the planned trilogy and the spinoffs that will tie into the films.
Expect A Chaotic Partnership
The foremost hint The Batman offers for the sequel is the possible uncanny partnership between the Riddler and the Joker. Now, it’s pretty much known that Joker doesn’t care for friendships. Whether we take notes from Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight or the crazier and more psychotic version in Batman: Arkham Franchise, the clown has been a backstabber all the time. But, even in his selfish partnerships, Joker has always been able to successfully wage war in Gotham, bringing a huge catastrophe to life there, and putting Gotham’s Bat in a tough place.
The partnership between the Riddler and the Joker isn’t straight out of something afresh in the movies. They both also have a comic-book history of a partnership that went bad. In the DC Comics storyline, The War of Jokes and Riddles, the two villains go head-to-head with their separate plans to take on Batman and wreak havoc across the city.
Matt Reeves has pointed out that he hasn’t included that sequence to directly convey the potential plot of the sequel. He has clearly stated that he isn’t fixated on adding Joker to his Batman’s rogues gallery and that sequel may have a different antagonist. But this partnership is something that everyone would be excited about, given that now we know Batman’s archnemesis is in the universe.
The Batman 2 Would Potentially See A New Joker
Altitude Film Distribution
DC Multiverse is continuing to expand with stories spread across timelines. While Heath Ledger’s iconic take on the character in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is immortalized, we also have two more character iterations. Jared Leto, despite so many discrepancies in the timeline and the changing course of the franchise, remains the Joker in the DC Extended Universe. Furthermore, Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker in Todd Phillips’ 2019 film titled after the character’s name, now inhabits his own universe, which is far more noir and gritty than the other ones. Though the setting of Todd Phillips’ Gotham in Joker has the same essence of corruption, crime, and lack of empathy as it is depicted in The Batman, there’s no sign of superhero presence there.
Now, there’s hardly any detail we know of Barry Keoghan’s Joker, however, Matt Reeves has earlier shed some light on his personality. Heath Ledger’s Joker was a criminally insane man hell-bent on causing chaos in the city, whereas Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker was a world-weary anarchist. We don’t know what this new Joker has been up to and what put him in Arkham in the first place, we know that his smile comes from a congenital disease he suffers. Reeves said that he wishes to explore a darker reaction to Joker’s personality derived from what he has suffered because of his condition since birth.
For now, he’s still kept in Arkham, and there are limitless possibilities to explore his potential as a criminal, and that too in a town where crime and corruption are so deep-rooted. Guess we’ll see it at the right time.
Do Batman and Joker Have A History?
As mentioned earlier, we have no idea how the Joker ended up in Arkham Asylum. In The Batman, Bruce Wayne has been acting as the city’s vigilante and drifter for the past two years. He’s still figuring out the roots of the crime in Gotham and trying to find his purpose. His journey of transition from a vengeful vigilante to the city’s protector is what Reeves explored in the movie.
It’s possible that Bruce helped apprehend Joker sometime in the past. From the sequence in the movie, it seemed that Joker has been onto Batman and has been probably keeping up tabs on the vigilante’s work in the city. Even when he calms down the Riddler, it seemed that he already is cooking up plans against the Bat. Batman and the Joker may have a history that goes back to the first two years of Bruce Wayne’s work in the city, which calls for a thorough study into their relationship if Joker appears in The Batman 2.
However, this might create an issue with the idea of giving villains their own origin story in this franchise, which director Matt Reeves has explicitly shown interest in and has done the same with Riddler, whereas tying up the Penguin’s story to his own HBO Max Original. Talking of HBO Max, the studio has greenlit another series based on the events surrounding Arkham Asylum, which may (or may not) give us a glimpse to the said history of Batverse’s maniacal clown, thus setting up a sequel featuring the Joker, be it The Batman 2 or some other follow-up.
Is Matt Reeves’ Batverse Ready For This Face-Off
DC Entertainment
Though the tease featuring Keoghan sets up a potential sequel, it’s too soon to say if the audience and also this new Batman are ready for the epic face-off.
Pattinson’s Batman is not experienced yet. It was this movie, which put him in the right state of conscience. Before The Batman, Bruce was a vengeful person who struggled to find the true meaning of justice and service to the city. And now that he has that figured out, he has to deal with one of the worst challenges when a power grab for Falcone’s place in Gotham’s organized crime hierarchy causes potential anarchy in the town. With Penguin at the top of that hierarchy after Falcone’s downfall, and other issues lurking around in the city, it seems this iconic showdown could be too soon for the franchise.
Matt Reeves, about Keoghan’s Joker, said that his version is still in its infancy. Robert’s Batman still needs to grow as the vigilante and establish his stronghold. Furthermore, putting Keoghan’s Joker against Batman so soon would surely call for a lot of comparisons against previous iterations of the character and possible backlash. Given the success of The Batman, it would be wiser to have him fight some other villain in The Batman 2, maybe someone who hasn’t been explored in live-action Batman lore.
For now, Matt Reeves himself isn’t sure about his plans for the sequel, however, it would be better to have a deeper character study for Joker through HBO’s Arkham Asylum Series before making him the primary antagonist in The Batman 2.
Selina hinted at the worse scenarios Gotham and the Batman must face now that the city is left vulnerable to a chaotic power grab among criminals. A storm is coming to Gotham and Bruce, with his newfound wisdom, would have a long battle ahead of him against more than one enemy. Amidst that, the Joker is up to something from behind his cell. It’s too soon to tell what really can unfold in the stories to come from the franchise, but now that Joker is in the Batverse, you can expect wide disarray caused by several plots and schemes, all bent on to see Gotham burn. Do you think Batman is up for it?
