Some interesting intel has dropped on the Marvelvision podcast.They’re hearing that Barry Keoghan is in talks to return as the Joker, but not in “The Batman Part II,” rather as the main villain in “The Batman Part III.”
More intriguingly, Keoghan’s Joker will also headline a Max series that builds up to “The Batman: Part III,” much like Matt Reeves and company did with “The Penguin.” This makes a lot of sense, especially considering the success of ‘Penguin,’ which has been putting up some stellar numbers ever since its debut in September.
Keoghan’s Joker shows up near the end of “The Batman” as an unnamed Arkham Prisoner who converses with The Riddler (Paul Dano). Since then, there have been rumors he would have a far larger role in the sequel. It now looks as though he’ll just have another cameo in ‘Part II.’
Matt Reeves is supposed to shoot “The Batman: Part II” early next year. Robert Pattinson, Colin Farrell, Zoe Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, and Andy Serkis are set to return to the cast. Back in September, Reeves confirmed to Collider that the plan was to turn his ‘Batman’ movies into a trilogy.
After many drafts, the script for “The Batman: Part II” was finally completed in September. No plot details have leaked, and the whole project has been shrouded in deep secrecy.
Reeves is taking his time with this one, and for good reason. There’s no rush, next year is especially going to be an important one for James Gunn’s DCU with “Superman” set for summer release. There’s also another DCU Batman movie in the works, and that would be Andy Muschietti’s “The Brave and the Bold.”
There have just been too many Batman movies these last 35 years — I’ve counted 10. It’ll be very hard for Reeves to top Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. He probably won’t. The Keoghan/Joker series will also be coming off the failure of ‘Joker: Folie a Deux,’ which means that the character will be getting a fresh new reboot.