Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for The Batman to follow…The Batman director Matt Reeves has revealed details regarding a deleted scene featuring THAT surprise villain. If you have not seen The Batman, please look away now. Just to reiterate, there are MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for anyone who hasn’t seen the film.

So, we have a new Joker. Played with a sinister brilliance by Eternals and The Killing of a Sacred Deer star Barry Keoghan, the Clown Prince of Crime only appears briefly towards the end of The Batman. But according to director Matt Reeves via IGN, a deleted scene exists and will be part of the home release, which sees Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight turn to this early version of the Joker in a situation akin to Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lector.

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While The Batman works perfectly well without the scene, this description alone should have fans salivating at the thought of seeing Robert Pattinson and Barry Keoghan go toe-to-toe Silence of the Lambs-style. While the Joker is likely to be kept to the shadows much like he is in his brief cameo, it will also give audiences a chance to take another look at this latest version of the infamous supervillain. Frankly, the home release of The Batman now cannot come soon enough.

“It’s a scene where Batman is so unnerved because the Riddler is writing to him. And he’s like, ‘Well, why is this guy writing to me?’ And he figures he’s got to profile this killer. He goes to see another killer that he’s clearly had an experience with in these first two years. And this killer in this story is not yet the character that we come to know, right? So everybody’s in their infancy. So in the comics, these characters often declare their alter egos in response to the fact that there’s a Batman out there. And so here, we have a Joker who’s not yet the Joker.”

The Batman Acts an Origin Story for the Villains

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Rather than retelling Bruce Wayne’s tragic origin story for the two-thousandth time, The Batman instead acts as an origin for several of its villains, the Joker included. “What’s interesting is that the reason that Joker’s in the movie is there was actually another scene that was earlier. And because the movie is not an origin tale for Batman, but it’s his early days, it really is an origin tale for the Rogue’s Gallery’s characters,” Matt Reeves said of introducing the beloved character. “And for me, I think [it’s] this idea that the Joker is not yet the Joker, but they already have this relationship.”

However, just because we now know the Joker exists in The Batman universe, does not necessarily mean he will be the main villain of the sequel. “The scene is not meant to be there to say, like, ‘Oh, there’s an easter egg, the next movie is X.’. Like, I don’t know that the Joker would be in the next movie, but I can tell you is that here’s what you’re seeing is an early days version of the character, and trouble, as always, is brewing in Gotham,” Reeves revealed.

Starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman alongside Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell, The Batman is out now.