Warner Bros. Rumored To Have Big Plans For Barry Keoghan's Joker After The Batman

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DC is about to triple down on its villains. Director Matt Reeves won all sorts of acclaim for his fresh new take on the Caped Crusader in 2022's "The Batman," but it's fair to say that star Robert Pattinson ended up upstaged by the big bads layered throughout the script: Paul Dano's Riddler with his David Fincher-inspired approach, John Turturro's creepy mob boss Carmine Falcone, and especially Colin Farrell as the scene-stealing Penguin, Oswald Cobb (a character so appealing that he's since been spun off into his own successful "The Penguin" series on HBO). But don't forget that there was even a last-minute tease for another major DC antagonist with Barry Keoghan's Joker, who received even more screen time in a deleted scene that Warner Bros. dropped soon after the film's release. The speculation since then has been that the upcoming "The Batman: Part II" would focus much more on Gotham's famous Clown Prince of Crime, but we're now receiving word that the studio is planning some seriously big things for him in the future.

The rumor comes from the Marvelvision podcast, hosted by film blogger Derek Faraci and former critic Devin Faraci (a reliable source of insider info but who, it should be noted, has had a controversial past in the film critic community), in their latest episode tied to HBO's ongoing "The Penguin" series. In a scoop that /Film can independently confirm we've heard from our own sources in recent days, Faraci reveals that WB is looking ahead to future plans for the Joker — some of which may include a Joker-centric spinoff series, which would lead up to a major appearance in the third "The Batman" movie. Read on for more details!

Barry Keoghan may return in a Joker series before a lead villain role in The Batman: Part III

The success of "The Penguin" might have wider-reaching effects than we ever thought. As popular as Batman has always been among fans and general audiences alike, there's no denying that viewers have gravitated towards the superhero's villains again and again. (That well might've finally run dry for a spell with the recent flop "Joker: Folie à Deux," though studio executives surely hope that was an aberration.) If this latest development is to be believed, the Joker will be making a grand return to the small screen and the big screen in the years ahead. At roughly the 21-minute mark of the latest Marvelvision podcast episode, Devin Faraci reveals:

"Apparently Warner Bros. has been chatting with Barry Keoghan about his return to 'The Batman' franchise, and my understanding is that — I don't know if he's in ['The Batman: Part II'] or not, but he's the main villain of ['The Batman: Part III']. And the reason why they're having a real talk about it is because the plan is to do a Joker-oriented series that connects 'II' and 'III' the way that 'The Penguin' connects ['The Batman'] and ['The Batman: Part II']."

That said, he immediately cautions that it's unclear whether this will be exactly in the same vein as "The Penguin," with the Joker positioned as the protagonist of the series much like Oz Cobb. Reportedly, this could either be a full-fledged Joker series or, as Faraci puts it, merely "a series the Joker is in." That leaves a fair amount of wiggle room for WB and Matt Reeves, but this certainly lines up with previous reporting that Reeves was looking to expand the series in a villain-centric direction. Anything could change between now and the release of "The Batman: Part II" (which has been pushed back a full year to 2026), so stay tuned for further updates.