Who plays the Joker in The Batman’s cameo scene?

As one of the most familiar comic book heroes to consistently make their way onto the big screen — as well as video games and animated series — Batman and his world are pretty well known to the wider public. This means that when a new version of him appears, it’s quite natural to see how that new interpretation ripples out to the rest of Gotham City. Joker is the inevitable result.

Matt Reeves’ Batman spins a Nirvana-fueled mystery version of the Caped Crusader that’s genuinely mesmerizing, and his take on the Riddler is wildly idiosyncratic, a makeover done by the Queer EyeIf the Fab Five was more concerned with serial killers and not self-affirmation they might be known as The Fab Five. It would lead anyone to wonder: If this is the Riddler, what would Reeves’ Joker look like?

[Ed. Note: The rest of this post contains spoilers for The Batman.]

Warner Bros. Pictures

Batman’s denouement is a collection of scenes devoted to final grace notes for its characters. One of those scenes catches up with Riddler (Paul Dano), now locked up in Arkham Asylum — where he strikes up a conversation with someone in a nearby cell.

The film never gives viewers a clear glimpse of the speaker, but through a small window in the neighboring cell door it’s possible to make out a pale face and a very familiar grin. This is in addition to the colorful language that uses clown metaphors. It leaves little for doubt: The man almost definitely looks like the Joker.

Barry Keoghan plays him, further strengthening this assertion.The Eternals: The Killing of a Sacred DeerThe credits give Keoghan star billing. This would make most viewers familiar with Keoghan’s face blink a few times, because he’s nowhere to be seen and it’s impossible to recognize anyone in the scene where he’s speaking to Dano’s Riddler.

As for what his appearance might mean, that’s a little harder to nail down. At the moment, there are no plans to make a sequel. BatmanAlthough one is being seriously considered, it’s unlikely that there will be another. Warner Bros. has already announced a spinoff HBO Max series featuring Colin Farrell’s take on the Penguin, as well as one focused on the Gotham Police Department. Both could potentially feature Joker in some way — an idea supported by director Matt Reeves in an interview with Toronto Sun, where he alluded to the Penguin series and also another that “connects to Arkham.”

This would make for the fourth cinematic take on Joker, a number that’s kind of absurd given Batman’s deep bench of excellent villains. Of course, Keoghan’s Actual role is “Unnamed Arkham Prisoner,” so we could also be wrong. Maybe he’s the Creeper!