Barry Keoghan Joker rumored for new movie, series

On By Littum

Barry Keoghan’s Joker might get the last laugh Batman trilogy. After Eternal and Salt combustion actor made a cameo in the 2022s Batman film – and a five-minute deleted scene that was eventually released online – director Matt Reeves insisted that the brief cameo was not in the works Batman Part II. “The idea was more to say, ‘If you think the problems are going to go away in Gotham, forget it. It’s already here,'” Reeves said of the imprisoned Riddler’s (Paul Dano) budding relationship with his fellow Arkham inmate, who is already imprisoned by the Dark Knight (Robert Pattinson).

“It’s not an Easter egg scene,” Reeves explained in a 2022 interview. “It’s not one of the last Marvel or DC scenes where it’s like, ‘Hey, here’s the next movie!’ In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies.”

RELATED: The penguin Was Almost Batman 2 Story, But HBO Boss Said ‘I Want It’ (Exclusive)

According to a report by Derek Faraci in the Marvelvision podcastThe Joker is not included Batman Part IIbut will instead be the main villain in Batman Part III. The report claims that Keoghan will only reappear in a spinoff series as The penguinbut it is unclear if it will be a Joker series or a series with the Batman villain.

In that way Penguin is the bridge between Batman and Batman Part IIthis rumored series would connect the next two films in what Reeves calls The Batman Epic Crime Saga. /Film confirmed the rumours.

Videos by ComicBook.com

Reeves, along with producer Dylan Clark, developed the future Batman spinoff series set in the Gotham City Police Department and Arkham Asylum, which ultimately did not move forward. It is possible that the Arkham series was reworked to focus on Keoghan’s Joker after the success of HBO’s The penguinwhich follows Oz Cobb’s (Colin Farrell) rise to power in the wake of Batman the movie.

“The streaming-cable space was a no-brainer for some of the bigger characters. Casey (Bloys, HBO CEO) was the first person to say, ‘I need a marquee character,'” Clark told ComicBook of the decision to to spin off Farrell’s Penguin for his own series. “And Matt said, ‘I have a really good idea for Colin for the second movie.’ And Casey said, ‘I want that.’ You can’t just have these characters in the film room. So it was a natural transition in that way, and I think we have some great ideas to explore more characters from our film space to do the same thing with Casey and Sarah (Aubrey, Max’s original head of programming).

The Joker is one such marquee character, as is Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman. Clark previously revealed that the network is developing an as-yet-undisclosed TV series set in the world of Batman.

Warner Bros. Pictures are dated Batman Part II for 2 October 2026.