Actor Barry Keoghan is ready to return as the Joker in the upcoming DC sequel The Batman 2. If and when director Matt Reeves calls him, that is. Speaking with GQ, Keoghan revealed that he has yet to be asked to bring back his iteration of the Clown Prince of Crime. But he is hopeful that it will happen, with the actor excited to do further battle with Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight.
It’s not too surprising to learn that Keoghan has not yet gotten the call to come back for The Batman 2, with director Matt Reeves currently writing the script for the sequel alongside Mattson Tomlin. While there had been some concern that The Batman 2 would not materialize amid the sudden cancelations over at Warner Bros. Pictures, a recent report has stated that Reeves has now begun work on the project with The Batman co-writer Mattson Tomlin. Robert Pattinson has also now been confirmed to return and once again don the cape and cowl.
“As soon as that call comes, I’m there man. I’m there.”
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Keoghan continued, offering some insight into his portrayal of the Joker (a role he has now revealed that came off the back of an unsolicited audition tape for The Riddler). Calling his horrifically scarred Joker as “a bit charming and a bit hurt,” the actor added that “I wanted some sort of human in there behind the makeup. I want people to relate to him… [to know] this is a façade he puts on,” before concluding that he is simply “a broken-down boy.”
Keoghan’s Joker only appeared in a glimpse at the very end of The Batman, with audiences able to get a better look at the character in a deleted scene. Despite such little runtime, Keoghan has already made quite the impression on Batman fans, with the actor revealing that he was recently included in a list of the best on-screen Jokers. “There were seven and I was number four,” he said. “Lads, with four minutes of screen time, not bad eh!?”
The Batman 2 is Now in Development But is Still ‘Years Away’
Warner Bros. Pictures
Released back in March, The Batman introduces audiences to a version of the DC vigilante two years into his career as a crime fighter. Striking fear into the hearts of criminals, Batman comes up against his greatest threat yet when a serial killer known as The Riddler begins targeting Gotham’s elite. Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell, The Batman was met with rave reviews upon release.
The Batman 2 is now in development, but reports have stated that audiences will be waiting some time for the comic book movie sequel, with “any future film” being “years away.”
The Batman 2, though, will be just one part of a Batman-shared universe headed up by Matt Reeves. “Someone like Matt, we’ll buy for him whatever he wants to do,” CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures Group Michael De Luca said in a statement. “We’re making an investment for whatever Matt feels a pull toward, in the Batman universe and otherwise. He has an open invitation to go wherever his interests take him. We’ll lean into whatever Matt wants to do. In terms of the writer/directors out there working in this very elevated genre space, with everything Matt’s done, from Let Me In to the Apes trilogy to The Batman, he’s in a class by himself.”
The Batman 2 does not yet have a release date.