{"id":228991,"date":"2025-10-27T22:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/228991\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T22:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:51:12","slug":"the-batman-trilogy-should-commit-to-the-boldest-joker-twist-after-breaking-a-36-year-trend-with-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/228991\/","title":{"rendered":"The Batman Trilogy Should Commit to the Boldest Joker Twist After Breaking a 36-Year Trend With Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Reeves\u2019 The Batman<\/a> franchise has the chance to take a bold swing when it comes to the Joker, starting with The Batman: Part II<\/a> but leading into a third movie. While it hasn\u2019t yet been made official that Reeves\u2019 series will be a trilogy, The Batman 3 is widely expected to happen. It\u2019d likely take the first sequel being a surprising box office bomb to prevent it, with the director having previously spoken of his hopes to deliver a trio of movies, which would be only the second live-action Bat-trilogy after Christopher Nolan\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Any Batman movie<\/a> is going to need a great villain, and there\u2019s no one who defines the Dark Knight \u2013 and The Dark Knight, for that matter \u2013 quite like the Joker. He\u2019s the most iconic villain in the Caped Crusader\u2019s rogues gallery, and a showdown with Robert Pattinson\u2019s hero was teased in The Batman\u2018s ending<\/a>, with Barry Keoghan taking on the role. Given the likelihood of two more movies in the saga, then the Clown Prince of Crime turning up again seems very likely, but Reeves is already taking a different approach.<\/p>\n

Why The Joker Won\u2019t Be The Villain in The Batman: Part II<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

Despite the setup of the Joker being in Arkham, he won\u2019t be the villain of The Batman: Part II<\/a>. Reeves has confirmed that the movie\u2019s antagonist will be one that\u2019s \u201cnever really been done\u201d in a movie \u2013 presumably, he means live-action, which opens up some tantalizing prospects. Some of the most likely options include Hush, the Court of Owls, and Hugo Strange, any of whom would be a fascinating foe for Pattinson\u2019s Batman to face.<\/p>\n

This decision is surprising, in a sense, because, the Joker is, well, the Joker, and it\u2019s rare that we don\u2019t get to Batman facing off with him pretty swiftly. Before Pattinson, the only live-action Batman actors to get two movies were Michael Keaton and Christian Bale, and both of them faced Mr. J within their first two films. However, perhaps we should\u2019ve been listenening to what Reeves was telling us all along. Back in 2022, he said Keoghan\u2019s Joker wasn\u2019t necessarily a tease for a sequel<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an Easter egg scene. It\u2019s not one of those end credits Marvel or DC scenes where it\u2019s going, like, \u2018Hey, here\u2019s the next movie!\u2019 In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Joker Shouldn\u2019t Be The Batman 3\u2019s Main Villain Either<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Joker not being the sequel villain is an unusual step, but I think Reeves should go further with it, and avoiding having him be the main villain of The Batman 3 as well (assuming it happens). Yes, he\u2019s the most iconic Batman villain; hell, the most iconic comic book villain. But that\u2019s sort of the problem: we\u2019ve seen him a lot. Indeed, including Keoghan, we\u2019ve already seen him in three different movies this decade (with Jared Leto in Zack Snyder\u2019s Justice League and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie \u00e1 Deux). We\u2019ll also possibly see him again in the DCU\u2019s own Batman movie when it eventually happens.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something to be said for Reeves\u2019 trilogy being the one that goes against the grain and does something different with its villains. When you have a character like Batman who is going to be rebooted at least once every decade, it pays to mix things up and keep it fresh \u2013 which is partly why The Batman itself was so great, because it was a different sort of Bat-movie compared to previous versions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also simply the case that there are so many great Batman villains who deserve a live-action movie<\/a>, and there just isn\u2019t room for all of them. So, rather than going back to Joker for the 182nd time, why not keep using villains who\u2019ve not been done before? If Hush is the villain of The Batman: Part II<\/a>, for example, then the movie could tease the Court of Owls in the background, and have them come to the fore in Part III. Alternatively, it could use villains who have been in a movie, but weren\u2019t done justice, like Mister Freeze or Poison Ivy. There are dozens to choose from, so it doesn\u2019t always need to be the same guy.<\/p>\n

Would this be a waste of the Keoghan tease, and admittedly interesting character design? Not necessarily. This wouldn\u2019t have to mean the Joker never appears, but he could be much more contained, similar to the deleted scene from The Batman with Batman visiting him in Arkham<\/a>, where we learn they have a history (something that could even be shown in flashbacks). The mere fact that Joker exists in this world enhances it, making it feel like a Gotham that\u2019s more lived-in and textured, something Reeves himself spoke about wanting to achieve:<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it\u2019d be really neat if so much of the fabric of Gotham just already existedAnd it was like an old Warner Bros. gangster movie and if you took a certain turn, you might see a character in his origins. I never was trying to say like, \u2018Hey, guess what, here\u2019s the Joker. Next movie!\u2019 The idea was more to say, \u2018Hey, look, if you think that trouble is going to go away in Gotham, you can forget it. It\u2019s already here. And it\u2019s already delicious.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a compelling idea, and speaks to Reeves\u2019 worldbuilding: he\u2019s already made a Gotham that\u2019s weirder than Nolan\u2019s (if anything, it\u2019s almost like a perfect hybrid of that and Burton\u2019s, while still being distinct), and his approach to the Joker adds to the history of the city, and of Batman himself. If we do get Keoghan vs. Pattinson in The Batman 3 then I\u2019m sure it would be great, but not doing it could be the even better choice.<\/p>\n

The Batman: Part II will be released in theaters on October 1st, 2027.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Reeves\u2019 The Batman franchise has the chance to take a bold swing when it comes to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,88885,35589,97378,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-228991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-regular-feature","11":"tag-the-batman","12":"tag-the-batman-sequel","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}